The Apprentice Cycle: One Letter Different
by This-Is-My-Towel
Summary: Fem!Harry, Femslash. Harriet Lilly Potter always knew she was different, 'Special' but now its time for her to return to the magical world and see how much so. XX or XY? What's the difference one letter makes?
1. A Brave New World

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

**Disclaimer2: I was largely inspired by SlyGoddess' work 'A Butterfly Effect' which is very good and you should read it... like now**

**World: Harry Potter**

**Genre: Female Harry (The ONLY Things to Change Will Be A Result Of This)**

**Written in: Mainly Harry's Perspective (3rd) Changes Occasionally**

**Main Pairings: Harry/Cedric(Very Minor), Harry/Susan, Harry/Ginny (I Think)**

**Warnings: Mature Themes, Explicit Sex, Female/Female Sex**

**Summary: Female Harry. Female Slash. Harriet Lilly Potter always knew she was different, 'Special' but now it's time for her to return to the magical world and see how much so. XX or XY? What's the difference one letter makes?**

**Notes: All facts and figures will follow cannon the only changes are ones that are made by Harry being female except for the fact I will not pair Ron with Hermione... I don't know what JKR was thinking with that one**

**This will NOT be a god Harriet fic but owing to not being starved and traumatised she will have a better control of magic, she will not be more powerful that Tom while she is still in school though**

**Anyway have a Preface.**

* * *

Harry had always assumed her mentor had some grand plan, a way of keeping everyone safe. A way of keeping _her_ safe. Of course Dumbledore didn't think of the love of Harry's life with as much protectiveness as Harry did but he knew what it was like to love someone, to truly and totally love someone. He also knew the pain of losing that person; he would not want Harry to go through that.

Harry had also assumed that the plan would keep Dumbledore safe as well. But now as she stared into the fading blue of his eyes it was clear this was his plan all along.

Dumbledore had arranged everything so that if Voldemort was ever defeated it would be Harry that claimed the victory, this was him, literally, passing the torch. He knew she didn't want to be the saviour but he knew if he forced her to take lead, she would. If someone had to, Harry would make the world safe for those that she loved.

"Goodbye old man" she said, her voice breaking.

"Goodbye Harry" he replied and slowly his eyes closed for what would be the last time.

Wiping away tears Harry clutched the elder wand tightly and turned on the spot, she had a castle to liberate; she had a loved one to save.

* * *

**Please note when I say anything different is because of Harry's gender I mean it, any and all changes will be explained.**

**Danni xxx**


	2. Snakes, Books, Chairs and Wands

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

Harriet, or Harry unless you wanted to be badly hurt, had always disliked her hair, it never stayed straight, even though it was shoulder length it still spiked out in random directions. It was jet black and silky and the overall effect made it look very sexy, Harry however just thought it was messy but that could just be because she was only ten and therefore too young to really understand what 'sexy' was.

Eventually Harry gave up and threw the brush across the room, she looked in the mirror and sighed, she truly hated her hair. It was however the only thing about her appearance she disliked, with her soft thin face and her button nose. But it was her eyes she liked the most. Shocking green eyes that seemed to glow and sparkle when she felt any strong emotion. She also had a thin scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on her forehead, only just hidden by her fringe. But even though she was just a pretty ten-year-old girl, even if she did have interesting eyes, when Harry was angry... people usually shrank back in fear.

Harry knew why this was; she knew she was different from everyone else. She had of course always known there was _something_ different about her but it was just after she had turned nine that she realised what it was. At first it frightened her that she could throw Dudley Dursley, the local schools bully, into a wall by just waving her arms, in fact the first few times she did anything like that it was completely accidental. But slowly she realised how useful this ability could be.

At first it was little things, or at least things of little consequence like changing the colour of her clothes, making something fly towards her if it was out of reach or tiding her room, but with time, she started using it more. She realised that using her ability she could stop bullies from terrorising other children and soon it was the bullies that where scared. Obviously she didn't want to advertise her gift so instead of throwing up her arms she punched and while she was quite weak she could let her ability do the damage.

Harry sighed again and moved away from the mirror, she looked as good as she was going to, and headed down the stairs. Today all the children in the orphanage were going to the zoo something which Harry was not exactly looking forward to.

"Harriet," said Mrs Kayne, the head of the orphanage, who at the moment was surrounded by children waiting to go on the trip. "Where have you been? You where supposed to be here ten minutes ago."

"Sorry Mrs Kayne," Harry grumbled, Mrs Kayne huffed. The kids must have been driving her loopy; she was never normally so short with anyone... even Harry.

It was a well known fact that Mrs Kayne, who generally loves all kids regardless, in fact disliked Harry. Harry thought it was because she beat up all the bullies, and then taunted them because they were beat up by a girl; Mrs Kane hated violence of any kind and seemed to be of the opinion that Harry should let their parents punish them.

Harry would have if their parents did punish them to begin with.

"Good, now everyone is here," she paused looking at Harry "We can get going. Everyone on the bus." Mrs Kayne yelled to a chorus of cheers.

On the bus journey Harry sat on her own as most of the kids where scared of her, even the ones who she saved from the bullies, thankful yes, but scared nonetheless. Harry didn't mind though, she was used to being on her own and it gave her time to read. All too soon though, she was pulled from Mr Darcy by the cheering of the other children, they had reached the zoo. Hours of boredom awaited, Harry wondered if it would be possible to sneak away to read for a bit.

The trip round the zoo was, as Harry predicted, boring with only one exception. They had just entered the reptile house when Harry saw out the corner of her eye the school bully, Dudley Dursley, and one of his minions.

Under the banner of 'It's my birthday let me through' which Harry had to roll her eyes at, he pushed his way through a group of kids to the front of a window and flattened his pudgy face against it.

'He is making this far too easy' thought Harry with a smug grin. She concentrated on the glass and brought up all the hate she had ever felt for the fat lump then simply wished the glass would disappear. The results were comical to say the least. Dudley fell head first into the enclosure and into the water that Harry assumed was for the snake to drink out of.

The snake, who had been asleep, hissed loudly at him _"Foolisssh human!"_ it slithered out of its cage _"AH! Freedom isss mine!"_

_"Yeah sure just don't eat anyone or they may have to put you down."_ Harry hissed at it as it passed.

_"They will have to catch me firssst sssspeaker!" _it replied.

Harry just let it pass. She could have told it to go back as all snakes, for some reason, had to obey her calling her 'a speaker' but she thought it would be nice for it to have a little fun, being cooped up can't have been very nice besides she had more important stuff to do. Another brief bought of concentration and when anyone got round to trying to get Dudley out they would find a sheet of glass in their way.

Chuckling to herself Harry left the reptile house with the shrieks of "GET MY DIDDYKINS OUT OF THERE!" behind her 'Diddykins?' Thought Harry, shaking her head. Her humour however was short lived as not looking where she was going she almost ran into Mrs Kayne.

"I don't know how you did it Miss. Potter." Mrs Kayne started

Last name... _with_ title... not good.

"But I know you did it never can resist putting people in their places can you? Well it's not your job to do that!" Even before Harry started to talk she cut her off "Don't try to wiggle out of this one Potter I know it was you."

"How? I don't even know how it was possible!"

"Nor do I. But I have seen a lot of things I didn't think possible these past few years and most can be traced back to you!" this even Harry had to admit was a good point "When we get back you will go straight to your room until I say otherwise."

Well that wasn't bad at all.

"And I will be confiscating all of your books!"

"What? But..." Harry spluttered.

"I have made up my mind and any arguments from here onward will only serve to lengthen your punishment!" said Mrs Kayne in a low voice.

"Yes Mrs Kayne." Harry mumbled defeated.

* * *

Harry was, in no sense of the word, happy. Having being locked in her room with nothing but her bed, wardrobe and an empty bookshelf for three whole days, she had a lot of pent up energy and frustration. She started off by playing dress up, seeing what clothes would go with what, altering anything by magic if she needed to. Changing her clothes with her gift always took a lot out of her, but she couldn't change too much otherwise others would notice, she was an orphan after all and they weren't exactly given a lot of clothes.

After exhausting her wardrobe of things to do she quickly became very bored. When not at meals or going the toilet all she could do was pace her room or lie on her bed, neither of which were very mentally challenging.

She wanted to rage at how unfair life was. She had done what she did because Dudley deserved it. Not because she got some weird pleasure out of it. Well that was only partly true, she did enjoy dishing out pain to those who deserved it. But why shouldn't she? She was doing the right thing... Wasn't she?

Harry shook her head "Don't think about it," she said out loud "Not when you're angry, you will just end up blowing something to pieces."

"Yes, I find that can be an issue sometimes."

Harry spun round to face this new voice or rather old voice as the man who it belonged to, standing just outside the door which Harry hadn't heard opening, had to be at least one hundred with his long silver hair and beard, both of which could easily be tucked into his belt, and his deep set wrinkles and the fact his bright blue eyes, that were hidden behind his long crooked nose and half moon glasses, were twinkling as if they held knowledge and wisdom only possible to gain after decades of experience. All of this however barely registered with Harry as his most prominent feature was his suit. His plumb coloured, fifties fashion, suit complete with jacket, waistcoat and bow tie.

"Er..." was all Harry could manage.

"Ah yes, how rude of me. My name is Albus Dumbledore and I am here to offer you a place in my school."

Harry, who was quickly overcoming the shock of seeing someone break so many rules of fashion, narrowed her eyes "School eh?"

"Yes, a school for the gifted" Harry could tell he was going to say more, most likely ramble on about how great his 'school' was but she cut him off.

"Let's say this is a school and not Mrs Kayne's way of shipping me off to a mental institute" at this the old man's eyes lost their twinkle "Why would I want to it? What can this 'school' offer me?"

"The ability to control your gift, Hogwarts is a school of magic" he said with a flourish of his hand which was holding a beautifully carved stick.

Harry's mouth dropped open. In the middle of Harry's room, which was usually bare, was a purple squashy chintz armchair.

"I am glad you like it! They are a specialty of mine."

Slowly Harry moved towards the chair as if she moved to fast it would suddenly vanish. She reached out with one hand and poked it, it seemed solid enough... Shrugging she sat down and found it was actually very comfy.

"How did you do that?" asked Harry she could change things or move things but she had never created a brand new object out of thin air.

"Conjuring is one of the more difficult branches of Transfiguration, which you will study at Hogwarts. That is if you accept your place there."

"As if I'd refuse after that!" Harry half-screeched.

"If you don't mind me asking you, don't seem to be as surprised most of the non-magically raised students. Excited yes, but not surprised."

Harry froze in the chair. Clearly students didn't usually find out about magic till they were contacted by strange men in stranger suits "That wasn't a question." stated Harry eventually.

"No but the intent was clear."

"It explains a lot, to be honest. Odd things happen around me, when I am scared or angry... That is my magic, isn't it?" Harry said as though she was actually thinking it through, it was even so good Mrs Kayne would have believed her. This Professor Dumbledore however was clearly more intelligent than that.

"Like vanishing glass, setting a snake on someone and then making the glass re-appear encaging a young boy inside a snake enclosure?"

'Crap, am going to kill Mrs Kayne.'

"That kind of 'odd things'?" he finished coolly.

"Er..." started Harry but was unable to come up with anything.

"You have been using magic in a way that is neither taught nor accepted at Hogwarts. You are not the first and will not be the last. However if you continue to do so you will find your place at Hogwarts rescinded"

"Then perhaps Hogwarts isn't for me then." Harry almost snarled and Dumbledore's eyes widened in shock "He got what he deserved, no more no less. He is a bully who, in the eyes of his parents, can do no wrong. If those in power refuse to punish bullies then I will do it myself!"

Dumbledore took a moment to compose himself but when he spoke his voice was quite steady "Bullies have no place at Hogwarts and misbehaving is treated with the correct amount of punishment."

"Then we won't have a problem then will we?" Dumbledore looked like he wanted to say something but she cut him off "But beware Dumbledore if you don't, _I will_" This was the one thing that she had always felt very strongly about and she wouldn't just stand by while people bullied others, not while she had the power to stop it.

"I see" Dumbledore said his voce quiet and polite. He reached into a pocket in his suit and pulled out an envelope made of thick yellowish parchment and gave it to Harry. On the front it had Harry's address in emerald green ink. Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter _H_. With a shaking hand she opened the letter.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY _

_Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE  
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards) _

A smirk flew across Harry's face "Got enough titles Headmaster?" he just chuckled and motioned for Harry to continue reading.

_Dear Miss. Potter, _

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. _

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31. _

_Yours sincerely,  
Minerva McGonagall,  
Deputy Headmistress _

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY _

_UNIFORM _

_First-year students will require:  
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)  
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear  
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)  
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)  
Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags _

_COURSE BOOKS _

_All students should have a copy of each of the following:  
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)by Miranda Goshawk  
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot  
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling  
A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch  
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore  
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger  
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander  
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble _

_OTHER EQUIPMENT _

_1 wand  
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)  
1 set of glass or crystal phials  
1 telescope set  
1 brass scale  
Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad _

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS _

Wonder filled her for a whole second before it turned to sadness "I... I can't go to your school Mr Dumbledore. S-sorry for wasting your time" she got off the chair and went and sat on her bed.

"And why is that?" Dumbledore asked with a trace of fear in his voice.

"Well I don't have any money you see and..." She stopped when she saw his smile

"It is a good thing your parents left you a small fortune in their will then, isn't it?"

"My... Parents?" Harry asked

"Yes Harriet... Perhaps I should tell you a few things regarding you and your parents"

* * *

Harry's head was spinning. Not only had a man, with an absolutely shocking fashion sense, came in and told her she was a witch, a famous one at that, he had explained how her parents died, at which point she had refused to cry in front of this strange man, and now, now, he was taking her shopping.

"What... On... Earth..." Harry gasped.

"Ah yes apperating can be quite disconcerting the first few times." Dumbledore mused as though he hadn't just been pulled through a thin rubber tube.

"And you didn't think to warn me?" asked Harry who received no more of a response than a chuckle.

The pair were on the receiving end of a few funny looks before they reached the pub that Dumbledore had told Harry was the entrance to a place he called Diagon Alley, then again Harry couldn't blame them not with Dumbledore and his _suit_.

"Here we are Harry the Leaky Cauldron, it's famous." Dumbledore said.

"It looks like a dive." pointed out Harry. And it was true Cauldron looked very run down. "At least the muggles don't seem to be able to see it."

Dumbledore chuckled again before becoming serious. "Remember I told you Harry you are famous," He said, as if she could have just forgotten. She nodded with a scowl, she hated being the centre of attention and it didn't seem she would be able to escape it this time. "Well your return our world will make people very... excitable. Just to warn you."

"Thanks." Harry mumbled but before she could do more than that the old headmaster had steered her inside.

"Professor Dumbledore sir! I thought you would be busy with Hogwarts stuff this time of year, the letters have only just gone out and all." called out the toothless barman.

"Ah Tom," Dumbledore said with a smile "I am on Hogwarts business." clapping a hand on Harry's shoulder, who until then had remained unnoticed.

"But you haven't take a student to get their things since... good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this — can this be —?"

The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.

"Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harriet Potter… what an honour."

Tom as the old bartender seemed to be called looked ready to rush at Harry and hug her but thankfully Dumbledore spoke up.

"Yes my old friend although she apparently prefers Harry." He said with a cheeky smile. "But we must be getting on, we have much to buy after all!" he finished briskly. Walking quickly without ever taking his hand off Harry's shoulder he steered her out the back door.

"Thank you for that," said Harry seriously, "I thought I was going to be eaten." Again Dumbledore just chuckled

"Now watch me Harry." Dumbledore said pulling out his wand, "Three up... Two across... With three taps." he said tapping the wall three times on the brick he indicated. The brick he had hit wriggled and in the centre a hole appeared, which grew wider and wider until both Harry and Dumbledore could both walk through together.

Not for the last time that day Harry's mouth dropped open. On the other side of the wall there was a winding cobbled street but it was the shops on the street that made her eyes bulge there were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, Cauldrons piled up outside a nearby door, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon...

She could hear people moan about the price of unicorn hair and rant about racing brooms 'This' thought Harry 'Is heaven.'

"Right" said Dumbledore obviously deciding Harry had drooled enough "Off to Gringotts we go"

It wasn't long before they reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was what had to be a goblin. He was about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside but Harry noticed he still managed to sneer while doing so.

Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:

_Enter, stranger, but take heed  
Of what awaits the sin of greed,  
For those who take, but do not earn,  
Must pay most dearly in their turn.  
So if you seek beneath our floors  
A treasure that was never yours,  
Thief, you have been warned, beware  
Of finding more than treasure there. _

"I wouldn't advise attempting breaking into Gringotts Harriet," Harry had to resist the urge to flinch... or slap him "You would only live long enough for you to regret it." This time however Harry was unable to contain a shudder which was not helped by the goblin sneering at her from the side of the door.

A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these.

"Good morning Miss Harriet Potter wishes to withdraw money from her vault." Dumbledore said to the nearest goblin.

"Of course sir, I assume you have Miss Potter's key?" Harry noticed the goblins where much friendlier to Dumbledore than her but just as she did the goblin who spoke smiled down at her from his counter.

'Maybe they are being nice to be because I am _Harriet Potter._' that thought alone sent shivers down her spine 'Sneaky goblins.' she thought venomously.

"Yes here it is," Dumbledore said passing over a small key "And I wish to withdraw the item from vault seven hundred and thirteen."

The goblin examined the key for a second before passing it back and summoning another goblin called Norsack who took them through one of the sets of doors. Harry who had expected more marble was surprised by stone passageway lit by torches and what looked like railway tracks. Norsack whistled and a small cart hurtled down the tracks,

After everyone was in and the cart set off at what was honestly an unnecessary speed, Dumbledore started talking again. "This account was set up by your parents so that you would have money for school items. Our law prevents anything being passed by inheritance until the person receiving the inheritance is over the age of maturity, which is seventeen in our world. It is common therefore, when a child is born, for a parent to open an account with Gringotts in their son's or daughter's name and put enough money to get by inside. The Potter family is quite rich and as you are the only heir you will receive quite a bit of gold and many items on your seventeenth birthday, in fact there is a book of your mothers I would very much like to borrow one day if that would be possible."

Harry nodded numbly by the sound of things she was very rich. 'That's no excuse to go spending loads of money on things I don't need though.' thought Harry.

When the cart stopped Harry got out and went into her vault. After another brief were she stood open mouthed, she began shovelling coins into a bag Dumbledore had given her, explaining not only was it bigger on the inside but it was charmed to stay 'light as a feather' with a rather feminine emphasis on the word 'feather', she was almost positive Dumbledore was gay.

Back in the cart Dumbledore explained that the monetary system used seventeen Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle and when Harry pointed out that using that system wasn't very logical Dumbledore only chuckled and said "Not much about the magical world is logical I am afraid Harry."

"Vault seven hundred and thirteen." said the goblin, as they stopped the second time. This time however Harry stayed in the cart and tried not to look towards the vault but when Dumbledore returned with only a small brown package, about the size of her fist, her restraint cracked.

"If you don't mind me asking, what is in the package?" Harry asked in her sweetest voice possible.

"This Harry is a favour for a friend, the only place safer to store something than Gringotts is Hogwarts, which shall be this wonderful and much sought after item's home for the time being." Harry knew that was the best she was going to get and let it drop. She could tell however that he was almost daring her to find out what it was.

Another cart ride later and they were back in sunshine "Right" said Dumbledore clapping his hands together "I think it best if we get your trunk first, that way we can put everything in it as we shop. Sound Good?" with a nod and a smile from Harry Dumbledore started down the alley for what would be a full day of shopping.

There was a cauldron shop, where Dumbledore refused to let Harry by a solid gold cauldron "The requirement for first years is a _pewter_ cauldron."

The apothecary, which stank of bad eggs and rotten cabbages. A robe shop in which Harry bought not only her school robes but lots of other lovely ones in bright colours and when Dumbledore had tried to intervene she hadn't been impressed "It's to do with fashion headmaster, something you wouldn't understand" this not only shut him up but the lady measuring Harry up for her clothes didn't stop laughing until long after they had left the shop.

In a shop of random equipment they picked up some crystal vials, a telescope and some brass scales. But it was in the bookshop that they spent most of their time.

Harry had quickly found all of her required books and then to Dumbledore's amusement ran around the rest of the shop picking up any books that looked even remotely useful or interesting.

"It is a good thing you bought a trunk with five compartments. I don't think an ordinary trunk would have sufficed." Dumbledore said as Harry paid for no less than thirty two books. Her books covered every subject she was taking this year except Herbology the only book she bought for that was on the required reading list, the study of plants just seemed boring to her. As well as books on what Dumbledore called the 'core classes' she also took one book on Arithmancy, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination and The Study of Ancient Runes. She didn't bother to get one on Muggle Studies as not only did she grow up with muggles the books seemed to be very outdated.

Finally there was only one thing left, a wand.

"This way Harriet, Ollivanders is the place for wands." The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.

A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Dumbledore sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though she had entered a very strict library; she swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to her and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of her neck prickled, her skin tingled as what could only be described as magic washed over her.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Dumbledore however simply chuckled.

An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.

"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harriet Potter." It wasn't a question "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.

"Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favoured it — it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

Mr Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see herself reflected in those misty eyes.

"And that's where…"

Mr Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.

"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands… well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do…"

He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Dumbledore.

"Ah Albus one of the few Ollivanders wands still in use that I didn't sell myself. I trust all is still well with it?"

What seemed like amusement flicked across Dumbledore's eyes before he answered. "I find myself using it less and less but I have no doubt that when I need it once more it will be ready for me."

Mr Ollivander seemingly didn't know what to make of that and turned back to Harry. "Well, now — Miss Potter. Let me see" He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket "Which is your wand arm?"

"Er — well, I'm right-handed." said Harry.

"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round her head. As he measured, he said "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Miss Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons... No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between her nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.

"That will do." he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor "Right then, Miss Potter. Try this one. Beachwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."

Harry took the wand and waved it around a bit, she could feel something distinctly magical about the wand but Mr Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.

"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try —"

Harry tried and it felt better than the last wand but she had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr Ollivander.

"No, no — here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."

Harry tried. And tried. Each time got closer and closer to feeling 'right' but Mr Ollivander continued to snatch the wands out of her hand. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.

"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere — I wonder, now — yes, why not — unusual combination — holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

Harry took the wand. She felt a sudden warmth in her fingers, much stronger than any other wand she had held, it was like a warm hug of an old friend you hadn't seen in a long time.

She raised the wand above her head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls.

Mr Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well… how curious… how very curious…"

He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious… curious…"

"Sorry," said Harry, "but _what's _curious?"

Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Miss Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand," he gave a look towards Dumbledore, "Gave another feather — just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother — why, its brother gave you that scar."

Harry swallowed, Dumbledore shifted slightly behind her.

"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember… I think we must expect great things from you, Miss Potter… After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great."

Harry shivered. She wasn't sure she liked Mr Ollivander too much. She paid seven gold Galleons for her wand, and Mr Ollivander bowed them from his shop.

Harry and Dumbledore walked quickly and silently through the leaky cauldron back through muggle London to the ally they appeared in. Dumbledore silently motioned for her to grab his arm and together they disappeared from sight.

It was only when they were both back in Harry's room that Dumbledore began to speak. He told her that she reminded him of a boy called Tom Riddle, the way she was raised, the fact she could control magic before even coming to Hogwarts, their common ability to talk to snakes, they apparently even looked very much alike claiming they could have been brother and sister.

But then, just as she was about to break down crying and beg for forgiveness and promise not to be evil he said something that made her pause.

"But it is how you are _not_ alike that is important." He said with the first smile he'd worn since coming out of Ollivanders "He used magic for fear and control, while you use it to help those in need. He hated everyone and everything that couldn't help him become stronger, while you help others who could never repay you. He flaunted his ability as a parseltounge to impress and show his dominance over other creatures, while you used it to have simple conversations despise the fact they have to obey you commands. I told you about a fortune that is rightfully yours and you asked about your parents. No Harry you are not the same as him and I don't think you ever will be."

And then it all clicked the endless questions about her life he asked while they were shopping, the fact he was more bothered about why she was using magic rather than she was and could already control it. "Today was a test wasn't it sir?"

"Yes young one, one you passed with flying colours. Someone trustworthy will come to pick you up at ten o'clock on the first of September. When talking to others when you talk of your home you may tell them you live in an orphanage but tell they you live in Liverpool, it will stop people... harassing you next summer, if they don't know where you live. I myself have placed enchantments on this building so that not even mail will be able to find you using magical means unless you class the person sending you mail a friend" he said with a small smile, "I shall see you in September." and with that he left.

Harry flopped down onto her bed and curled up into a ball. There was so many thoughts flowing through her head it hurt to think, so much had happened today and it baffled her that just that morning she was upset about a couple of days without her books.

* * *

**I hope you liked the start of OLD and if you didn't and you're not going to read any further can you just give me a quick review to say why? Thanks.**

**Danni xxx**


	3. Fighting Fame

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

Harry sat with a book in her arms, a _magical book_, with pictures that moved and words that spoke of the wonder of a different world. Harry had read most of the books she had gotten from Diagon Alley and those she hadn't she had at least skimmed through but her favourite book the book she was now reading, for the sixth time, didn't come from Diagon Alley. _The Tale of Three Brothers_ was given to her. As a _Birthday_ gift.

He hadn't signed the gift but the note which said simply 'Another test' in narrow loopy writing could only have come from the Headmaster. 'Another test' thought Harry. To be honest those words had been on her mind since her birthday. It had to have something to do with the symbol that had been inked in at the top of the first page it was a triangle, with a circle inside it with a line running from the peak to the base of the triangle. Or as the words below it, which were also inked in, said; blade, oval, triangle.

It didn't make much sense to her yet but she wasn't going to fail the test that the barmy old codger had set her, she just needed to find out what the test was first. Harry growled in frustration she wasn't used to not figuring things out straight away 'Maybe that's it' thought Harry reasonably 'Maybe he has set me an impossible test to see how well I take failure. Gave me enough hints so that I would think it's real but not an actual answer. Or I am being really stupid and the answer is right in front of me' sighing again she conceded at least temporary defeat. She clearly didn't have all the clues if there was really an answer and trying to get information out of Hagrid had been useless, either he was much more intelligent and tight lipped than he seemed or he didn't know anything about the symbol.

"That some kinda rune?" the _very_ large man had asked when he had come to pick her up.

"Not one that I can find in my book on runes." Harry sighed and began asking Hagrid about Hogwarts.

Hagrid, as it happens, was the groundskeeper or as he said "The Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." and he was clearly very happy with his job. Hagrid told her all about how beautiful the castle was and how she would get to see it from the boats they used to take the students across the lake and many of it's beautiful facts. Harry of course had already read much of what he said in _Hogwarts: A History_ but it was still nice to hear it in greater, and highly biased, detail.

He had however needed to get back to Hogwarts and had left her on Platform Nine and Three Quarters at half past ten and so when she boarded the train it was almost empty. It was almost half an hour later, just before the train was about to set off when her compartment door slid open revealing a nervous looking red-head.

"Do you mind if I sit here, everywhere else is full?"

Harry looked up from _The Standard Book of Spells: Grade One_ which she had started reading after giving up on the symbol. The girl had beautiful brown eyes and an almost pixie like face which was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

"Sure thing, Ches." said Harry with a smirk. Confusion swept over the girl's face but the smile remained. "It's a character in a muggle book that you remind me of. You must have grown up around wizards?"

"Erm... Yes... My auntie. My name is Susan Bones." she said shyly. Harry was about to offer her name but Susan carried on "I am so excited to be going to Hogwarts! I have been waiting for this since I can remember. My auntie has told me so much about the world and magic and the Ministry and Hogwarts but I haven't had many friends because she rarely lets me out of her sight. She isn't mean or anything she just wants to protect me. And I'm rambling aren't I?"

"Yes you were." Harry said with a grin "But don't worry about it, I am sure you're not the only person that is nervous today"

It was nice for Harry talking to someone as an equal, Susan was funny, after she had gotten over nerves, and seemed genuinely friendly, somebody Harry could see herself liking. They talked about home life and Harry found out Susan lived with her auntie because her parents were killed in the war but she, unlike Harry, had someone to have tell stories about them and their life. Harry felt her eyes start to water and needless to say she changed the subject quickly.

Eventually the subject turned to their new home, Hogwarts. Both Harry and Susan were very excited about learning magic and talked in great deal about the lessons they would be taking.

"So which house do you think you will be in?" Susan asked.

"I don't really know to be honest. I keep trying to think about it logically to fit my personality but I think I could end up anywhere really. What about you?"

Susan blushed "Well my auntie said she thinks I will go to Hufflepuff but..."

"But..." said Harry, now honestly curious.

"Well isn't it... You know... The 'Rubbish House' that they put the left over people."

"What? No!" said Harry with a bit more force than she meant to "Hufflepuff is for the loyal and hardworking. Honestly if I end up there I wouldn't mind."

Susan looked a bit shocked at first but then smiled "Thanks for that," she blushed again "I've been worrying about it for ages." she admitted.

"Well next time just come talk to me and I will set you straight." Harry smirked.

"But what if we are in different houses?"Susan said looking worried again.

"If we are in separate houses it really won't make a difference. I will still be your friend." at this Susan brightened up considerably and she jumped in telling Harry everything her auntie told her about the old magical castle.

Not long after that a smiling, dimpled woman had gone past selling all kinds of strange sweets, the likes of which Harry had never seen before, buying some of everything so she could see what it tasted like she retreated into the carriage.

"Hungry?" asked Susan.

"Hmm? Oh not really, I just wanted to try it all out, I have never had magical sweets before." Harry had offered the sweets to Susan as well and they were soon clutching their sides in laughter. After all trying to guess the flavours of _Bettie Bott's Every Flavour Beans_ was quite amusing.

During this the compartment door slid open again showing and a round-faced boy with blonde hair and blue eyes that were full of tears.

"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

"No, I am sorry." said Susan turning to Harry as if she might contradict her.

"I've lost him!" the boy wailed when Harry shook her head with a sad face "He keeps getting away from me!"

"I am sure you will find him." Harry said, "In fact I read in a book over the summer that there is something called a summoning charm but it isn't taught till later on, why don't you try asking one of the higher years to perform it?"

The boy looked shocked and slightly hopeful "Do you think that will work?" he asked.

"I don't see why not" said Susan, "I have seen my auntie summon things before and it always worked for her, even if they were in a different room!" she finished excitedly.

'Clearly I underestimated this girls excitement for learning magic,' thought Harry as the boy mumbled his thanks and left 'Then again she has been waiting for this all her life.'

After that the train ride was nearly completely uneventful. The only thing that happened of note was the boy who lost his toad, who this time introduced himself as Neville Longbottom, came back thanking Harry for telling him about the summoning spell. Harry told him her name when he asked it and only the twin gasps from the other occupants of the compartment did she remember she was famous and that she had never gotten around to telling Ches her name, she had told her about the orphanage yes but the only name she supplied was 'Harry'.

"Y-you're H-harriet P-potter." Neville stammered out staring at her hair that fell in front of her forehead, clearly checking for her scar.

"Yes but don't go on about it will you? I am just me and I'd rather you didn't treat me any different. Oh and don't tell anyone else either, I'd rather not be the centre of attention" said Harry to Neville not wanting to turn around and see the hurt that was surely in Ches' eyes.

"Oh Ok" said Neville he looked between the other two and then seemed to take Harry's question as a dismissal and left.

"Why didn't you tell me?" her voice was quiet and soft but the underling pain for some reason sent spikes of pain at her heart. Was it because she had hurt someone that was clearly so good and pure? Or was it because she had never connected to anyone on the same level as Ches regardless of how long she had known her?

"Because I didn't want you to like me for my fame... Because I don't want people to like me because I survived when my parents died... Because I don't _want_ to be _Harriet Potter_!" her eyes were welling up and her mouth was turning dry. This had been troubling her ever since that day a week before her birthday when she was told about her past.

"Oh... I-I am sorry." Harry's head whipped round to face her, "I never thought of it that way! Come here." and before she knew what was happening Harry was pulled into a soft, warm hug. At first she tried to fight it but she soon gave in, it felt 'right' to be in her arms, pressed against what had to be the beginnings of Ches' breasts. She almost scowled at that, why did she have to be born at the end of the year? Being one of the youngest, and therefore less developed, in the year was going to be annoying. Ches stepped back and looked Harry directly in the eyes "Are you ok?"

Harry suddenly felt a strong pull towards her egging her to pull her back into another embrace but she dismissed as craziness "I am now I have you Ches." she said pulling Ches down onto one of the seats, sitting so close felt so comfortable to her, Ches smiled and snuggled up to her and that is the way they stayed until they had to get changed into their school uniforms.

A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately." Harry's stomach lurched with nerves Ches however looked like she was about to explode with excitement. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.

The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, 'arry?"

"Hagrid!"

Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads "Told yer I 'ad a job teh do. C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

They followed him down a very dark path nobody spoke until the path opened out onto a great black lake. There was a collective gasp for just beyond the lake, Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. It was a thing of beauty standing proud amongst the picturesque landscape.

"No more 'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ches followed a nervous looking Neville and an equally looking nervous blonde girl "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then — FORWARD!"

And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.

"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.

They walked up the rock path, which lead to grass right in the shadow of the castle. They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.

"Everyone here?" Hagrid asked looking around before he raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.

The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was _huge_. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors. They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right — the rest of the school must already be here — but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on a boy with red hair who had a smudge on his nose before she walked back through the door.

"How do they sort us into houses?" asked Harry.

"I am not sure. My auntie said she couldn't tell me as 'Only those who have been through the sorting should know how it is done' something about if it is a secret then it makes the feeling of being sorted more exciting." Ches said. Harry couldn't see an argument to this logic, true not knowing made it scarier but Harry couldn't say she wasn't excited about it.

"Do you know where you are going to go?" asked Neville.

"Hufflepuff I think." said Ches with a smile.

"Ravenclaw, I think I like books too much to be put anywhere else" Harry half-joked "What about you Neville?"

He put his head down, "I don't know, I don't really have any defining characteristics, they will probably say they have made a mistake and send me home."

"I think your being too hard on yourself Neville," said Harry "You will see." he looked happier but the fear was still visible in his eyes. Harry wanted to say more but was slightly distracted by a bushy-haired girl whispering very fast about all the spells she had learned which confused Harry.

Harry recognised the spells from her books but how had the girl gotten away with casting them at home? Harry shook her head and thought about asking Dumbledore later, maybe only he told her she wasn't allowed to use magic outside school because she lived with muggles who still didn't know anything about the magical world.

Harry looked around and almost screamed. During her musing about twenty ghosts, _ghosts_, had wandered into the room. She had, of course, read about ghosts but seeing them in person was a little disturbing and seeing them casually talk to the students nearest them was even more so.

"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start." professor McGonagall had returned and one by one the ghosts vanished through a nearby wall. "Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "And follow me."

Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. Harry could almost _feel_ the Headmaster's stare on the back of her head.

The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. She heard the busy-haired girl whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in _Hogwarts, A History_."

It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.

Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty but Harry couldn't help feel fond of it, like an old friend she never knew she had.

For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth — and the hat began to sing:

"_Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,  
But don't judge on what you see,  
I'll eat myself if you can find  
A smarter hat than me._

_You can keep your bowlers black,  
Your top hats sleek and tall,  
For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat  
And I can cap them all.  
_

_There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be.  
_

_You might belong in Gryffindor,  
Where dwell the brave at heart,  
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry  
Set Gryffindors apart;  
_

_You might belong in Hufflepuff,  
Where they are just and loyal,  
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true  
And unafraid of toil;  
_

_Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,  
if you've a ready mind,  
Where those of wit and learning,  
Will always find their kind;  
_

_Or perhaps in Slytherin  
You'll make your real friends,  
Those cunning folk use any means  
To achieve their ends.  
_

_So put me on! Don't be afraid!  
And don't get in a flap!  
You're in safe hands (though I have none)  
For I'm a Thinking Cap!" _

The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.

"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Harry heard someone whisper, "I'll kill Fred; he was going on about wrestling a troll."

Harry resisted the urge to roll her eyes, honestly? Wrestling a troll? Nobody in their right mind would make an eleven year old wrestle a troll 'Then again,' she thought, 'With Dumbledore as headmaster who knows what goes on here.'

Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said, "Abbott, Hannah!"

The pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails, that sat in the same boat as Harry, stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moment's pause —

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.

The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.

"Bones, Susan!"

"Good luck Ches" whispered Harry.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah after throwing Harry a smile.

"Boot, Terry!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.

"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Harry could see twin redheads catcalling. Harry chuckled quietly but when she noticed just how developed 'Lavender' was she stopped and scowled. Harry noticed Ches look at her with raised eyebrows but she just shook her head and gave the Hufflepuff a smile which was returned before she turned to Hannah.

Harry started looking round the hall just soaking in the atmosphere and she was still doing this the next time she registered what Professor McGonagall was saying.

"Potter, Harriet!"

Whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.

"_Potter_, did she say?"

"_The _Harriet Potter?"

Harry steeled herself and took a step forward. The effect was immediate, every pair of eyes locked onto her. Harry just kept walking looking directly at the hat and ignoring everything else.

The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at her.

Next second she was looking at the black inside of the hat. she waited.

"Hmm," said a small voice in her ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. You can be as cunning as any in Slytherin yet you would never better yourself at the cost of another so the snake pit is unlikely. Loyal to a fault but that loyalty has to be earned so Hufflepuff isn't the best choice either. The lions are a possibility you have a strong, if a little strange, moral code which you wouldn't break for anyone. Ravenclaw is also possible; there is a thirst for knowledge and a love of reading, even if you would rather read a storybook than a textbook."

Harry felt weird; this strange hat had just summed up her entire personality in a couple of sentences.

"Did I?" asked the hat, "There is much more to you than what I have said. Things you don't know. Things you know but won't admit, even to yourself. No, no. There is much more to you than that Miss Potter. But that is not important at the moment, no we need to sort you first, we can chat later if you wish, Albus wouldn't mind."

The phrase 'Barmy old codger.' Floated through Harry's head.

The hat chuckled quietly "Quite. But back to sorting you. Do you have any thoughts?" honestly Harry didn't care although she was a little annoyed that 'The Sorting Hat' was asking her where to put her. The sorting hat chuckled again "Well I can't say you are the first to think that but I do love it when people do. Anyway I have made my decision, good luck Miss Potter and have fun in GRIFFINDOR!" Harry could tell the last word was shouted out to everyone in the hall because everyone started cheering. Cheering much louder than anyone else Harry noticed. In fact the twins that were cat calling Lavender were now chanting "We got Potter! We got Potter!"

Harry sat down near the bushy-haired girl but regretted it almost immediately as she looked at her with what could pass for hunger. Harry however turned away and watched the rest of the students get sorted but she wasn't listening instead she was wishing that the sorting was done in a place where nobody could see or hear, she hated being famous and now everybody knew who she was.

When the final person "Zabini, Blaise," was made a Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.

Professor Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there. "Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

As he sat back down Harry clapped and cheered along with the rest of the hall, she had actually expected him to say something like that, he was, after all, insane. Some of the other first years were clearly a little less certain though.

"Is he a bit mad?" asked the bushy-haired girl next to Harry.

"Mad?" said a red haired boy across the table "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes Hermione?"

Harry's jaw dropped open, the large golden plates that had been empty a second ago were now full of food. She had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs. 'Dumbledore,' thought Harry 'I'd put my life on it.' she started piling food onto her plate but before she could start eating Hermione, as her name seemed to be, started talking again.

"Hello I am Hermione Granger." she said "I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in _Modern Magical History _and _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts _and _Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century_."

"I know," Harry said tonelessly, "I haven't read them though as Dumbledore told me all I need to and he said that the people who wrote the book had no idea how I survived and just made stuff up to sell their books."

Hermione for her part looked flabbergasted "But the books said they had done extensive research!"

"How?" Harry asked after swallowing some chicken "The only two people there were me and Voldemort." at this there was a gasp at the table but Harry ignored it, Dumbledore had already explained the idiocy of people not saying Voldemort's name "He hasn't been seen since and I haven't talked to any of the authors, not that I would have been much help as I was only one when it happened."

Hermione just looked confused before she turned to the food on her plate eating in silence. The redhead however clearly wasn't going to let Voldemort's pass.

"You said his name! I thought you of all people..." But that's as far as he got as Harry cut him off.

"'Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.'" She quoted Dumbledore, "All Voldemort is, is a coward." all those that heard this were silent "I mean even his name means 'Flee from death' and if any real amount of people fought him he never would have gotten enough support to overtake the Isle Of Man let alone the rest of Brittan. True he was a very powerful wizard but he never beat Dumbledore in a fight did he? He was able to rule simply because most of the wizarding world is stupid." and it was, from what she could discover from reading the books she bought and the paper she subscribed to on Dumbledore's suggestion, people in the wizarding world seemed to just plod along like sheep.

The rest of the feast was silent for those around Harry as they digested what she had said. Harry was looking anywhere other than the teachers' table she knew Dumbledore would want to catch her eye but she didn't think it a good idea while she was still feeling frustrated at the wizarding world, she did _not_ want to take it out on him.

After the deserts had disappeared, and Harry was feeling a lot less hostile, Professor Dumbledore stood up and Harry was impressed when she noted that everyone fell silent immediately without him having to do anything.

"Ahem — just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the red-haired twins "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch. And finally, I must tell you that this year; the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."

A few people laughed 'They clearly don't know Dumbledore very well.' thought Harry.

"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore obviously happy with this fact but Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed. He gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.

"Everyone pick their favourite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"

And the school bellowed:

"_Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,  
Teach us something please,  
Whether we be old and bald  
Or young with scabby knees,  
Our heads could do with filling  
With some interesting stuff,  
For now they're bare and full of air,  
Dead flies and bits of fluff,  
So teach us things worth knowing,  
Bring back what we've forgot,  
just do your best, we'll do the rest,  
And learn until our brains all rot." _

Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

'Absolutely mental.' thought Harry as she followed one of the female prefects through the castle.

Up stairs, down corridors, through secret passageways and at last they came to a stop at the very end of a long corridor where there was a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.

"Password?" she said.

"Caput Draconis," said the redhead Harry spoke to at the feast who had introduced himself as Percy, the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it — Neville needed a leg up — and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cosy, round room full of squashy armchairs.

Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another.

At the top of a spiral staircase — they were obviously in one of the towers — they found their beds at last: six four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pyjamas and fell into bed.

Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because she had a very strange dream. She was wearing a purple turban, which kept talking to her, telling her she must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was her destiny. Harry told the turban that that didn't make any sense and that what house you were in didn't make any difference; it got heavier and heavier; she tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully — there was a burst of green light with a high cold laugh and Harry woke, sweating and shaking. She rolled over and fell asleep again, and when she woke next day, she didn't remember the dream at all.

* * *

Susan was actually getting rather annoyed at the skinny blond boy with an upturned nose, Zacharias or something like that, he just wouldn't shut up.

"Come on you obviously know her with the amount of times she smiled at you, and you were talking before the sorting, so come one tell us!"

"You want to know about her?" she asked but continued before he could answer "She hates being famous, being pointed at and stared at so just back off! Alright? How would you feel? To be famous because you didn't die the same day as your parents? She just wants to be treated like a normal person! And if I find out you have been harassing her I will hex you until you cant sit down without excruciating pain!" she finished screaming at the boy who was now a nice shade of white. And with that turned and stormed down the hallway the prefect had told her was the girls' dormitory leaving at least half of Hufflepuff house standing in the common room looking quite uneasy 'Serves them right,' she thought viciously 'Treating her like she is something to be fawned over!'

She slammed the door, found the bed with her trunk next to it, got changed and jumped in pulling the yellow curtains around her all while completely ignoring the small voice in the back of her head which was telling her that if she hadn't of met Harry on the train she would have been just as curious as the rest of her house.

The last thing she thought before falling asleep was that Harry didn't deserve people like Zacharias Smith following her around and she promised herself that if she could help her in any way, she would.

Her dreams were full of magic, happiness and a beautiful black haired, green eyed girl calling her 'Ches' despite her anger and sadness while she was awake, Susan slept with a huge smile on her face.

* * *

**I am not pushing Ron and Hermione out of Harry's life even though it may look like it in this chapter however Harry will not ONLY be friends with them two like in the books, its fine for a book directed at little kids but in this Harry will have more than two good friends.**

**Danni xxx**


	4. With Sneers and Bushy Beards

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words. She honestly didn't understand it. At the orphanage Harry had changed her clothes with ease so why was 'Transfiguring' a match into a needle so hard? She had half a mind to put her wand down and change it like she normally would but then again old Dumbles had advised her against it while they were shopping in Diagon Alley.

"It would be unwise to flaunt your magical ability without a wand Harriet; people are not used to seeing people like you and me who can perform magic wandlessly" he had told her.

"What? Why? Can't other people do it?"

"They could if they knew how and had the required discipline to but people believe it take lots of raw power, they might fear you."

Harry shook her head and looked back to her match, she was getting nowhere thinking of that and Hermione had already made her match pointy.

'What would I do if I was doing it without a wand?' thought Harry, 'Of course! You have to visualise it changing!' Harry almost hit herself for being so stupid.

Five seconds later she had a silver pointy needle in her hand, complete with, an admittedly, slightly wonky eye, grinning she called Professor McGonagall over to show her 'Yep, am going to like it here.'

In fact Transfiguration quickly turned out to be her favourite of all her lessons closely followed by charms but if Harry was honest with herself that was due to Professor Flitwick rather that the actual material. Flitwick was so small he had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk, books he fell off when he got to Harry's name halfway through the register.

But the material... Harry had no doubt that the spells they were learning would get more useful however there was simply no point in a charm that produced a small amount of bubbles, at least not one that Harry could see, But Flitwick's small squeaky voice and large amount of enthusiasm couldn't be matched; Harry didn't think she would sign up for his choir though.

Astronomy, the study of the stars was held on Wednesday at midnight which was actually fun and interesting if also a little useless. History of Magic however was both useless and boring, it was taught by the only ghost teacher, Professor Binns, who droned on in a perfectly monotone voice that only Hermione Granger seemed to be able to stay awake through... and they had that class with the Ravenclaws. At least Harry could just ignore him and read her history book, he didn't even notice and it was easier than attempting to follow him and write notes based on what he said.

A close second to the most boring class was Herbology however this was saved the top spot due to the fact it was with the Hufflepuffs. When they were set to work Harry immediately partnered with Ches, Neville and one of Ches' friends, Hannah Abbot. Harry was honestly growing quite fond of the shy boy and Hannah, who blushed anytime Harry talked directly to her, seemed alright as well and talking to Ches was always good fun, even if they were re-potting plants at the same time.

Defence against the dark arts however, the one lesson Harry had really been looking forward to, turned out to be a complete joke. It wasn't that the subject was boring, that in fact was very interesting, all the jinxes and hexes, all the strange and deadly creatures all of which Harry had read about but it was the teacher that ruined DADA. Professor Quirrell was almost as difficult to follow as Professor Binns but for a different reason. Quirrell stuttered, badly. Unable to even slightly follow Quirrell, Harry just sat at the back of the class and read one of the defence books.

Besides the further from Quirrell she sat, the better she felt. She couldn't explain it but she really didn't like him, he was just creepy, just being in the same room as him made her feel sick.

Walking down to breakfast on Friday Harry was again being stared at and pointed out to friends by everyone, it had been going on all week. Well actually it wasn't everyone now she actually took notice. No actually it mostly seemed to be Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, the Slytherins mostly seemed to sneer at her and the Hufflepuffs, other than taking quick glances at her periodically, seemingly treated her like everyone else. Now Harry thought about it the same could be said for when they were in Herbology with her; the only Puff to talk to her other than Ches was Hannah.

Harry shook her head of this strange behaviour it wasn't like she could figure it out without more information and she really needed to look where she was going. According to _Hogwarts: A History_ there were one hundred and forty two staircases, all of different shapes and sizes, in the castle, that by itself however wasn't much of a problem. No the real issue of navigating Hogwarts was that the staircases _moved_ and they weren't the only thing either, pictures visited each other and the suits of armour that littered the never stayed in the same place for long so it was next to impossible to find a reliable landmark. And all of that was just complicated by the tick steps and doors that wouldn't open, either because they didn't want to or they weren't really doors, just walls that liked to pretend.

Hermione had already gone down to the great hall before Harry had finished getting dressed and, if she was honest, fussing over her hair. Harry didn't want to walk down with the gossipers Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil so had left before they had finished which just happened to be the same time both the other two girls in her dormitory and Neville were also setting off. Like Neville, Lilith Moon and Jamie Spinks were both very quiet and as a result the walk down to breakfast was almost silent.

The silent decision however seemed to be 'Follow Harry' Harry had, however, been trying to mentally map out the route all week and following older students had revealed a few secret passageways to speed things up and using these as landmarks made it easier.

Having reached the great hall without getting lost once, the four Gryffindors happily sat down and began eating.

"So what lessons have we got today?" Harry asked the rest of her group hoping for some conversation from the shy bunch.

"Double potions with the Slytherins." said Jamie.

"Snape is Head of Slytherin House. I heard one of my dorm mates say he always favours them — we'll be able to see if it's true." said Neville.

"I don't really care if he does; brewing potions sounds like such a useful skill so I'd rather not have him make it easy for me so when I have to do it outside the classroom I won't need any help." said Harry calmly.

"That makes sense I suppose" Neville admitted.

Just then, the mail arrived. Harry had gotten used to this by now, but it had given her a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps.

And today one of those letters made its way over to Harry. Looking at the bird suspiciously she removed the letter from its leg, Harry only had one correspondent and she did not think normal owls were 'Flashy' or 'Camp' enough for the old coot and besides the envelope was addressed in a rough scrawl, a far cry from the Headmaster's elegant script.

"It's from Hagrid, he wants to me to go see him this afternoon after lessons. Want to tag along?" she asked after reading the note, already writing 'Sure' on the back of the note and giving it back to the bird.

"Erm... That's the... Big man?" asked Jamie, "In that case I think I will sit this one out." she finished with a smile on seeing Harry's nod.

"Er... Yeah thanks." said Neville shyly.

Lilith simply shook her head and blushed heavily when Harry turned to her.

'What happened to Gryffindors being brave?' thought Harry 'Then again Hermione should have suited Ravenclaw much more as well. Maybe it is just what you value the most instead of your actual traits.'

Harry was brought out of her musing by Neville who was insisting they get to the dungeons with plenty of time. It was a good thing as well, after their potions lesson it was clear that Professor Snape hated Gryffindors and hated Harry more than most.

It was colder in the dungeons than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. Snape started the class by taking the roll call however he, like Flitwick, paused at Harry's name.

"Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harriet Potter. Our new — _celebrity_."

Half of the Slytherins sniggered behind their hands.

Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black and completely empty of warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making." He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word. Snape seemed to have the gift of keeping a class silent without effort "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death— if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Hermione's hand had shot into the air. She, clearly, knew but Harry had read her books as well.

"Asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death, sir." Harry said with a cold glare.

Snape who had clearly been expecting her not to know looked blankly before starting again

"Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but again Harry knew this one two as she remembered being slightly confused as to how muggles had not discovered it.

"In the stomach of a goat, sir."

This time he recovered more quickly and fired off another question.

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Ah plants, this was a question she didn't know but honestly she didn't care anymore.

"That has more relevance in Herbology surely Professor?" She asked but then continued before he had chance to say anything "But then again I am finding it more interesting that you are singling me out and asking me questions that very few first years with no previous potions experience would know. So I will ask you a question _Professor_, what do you think the response of the general public would be if they found out that a greasy potions Professor was verbally abusing the last member of an ancient house in his classroom and worse still she was the Girl-Who-Lived?"

Silence.

There was absolutely no sound in the classroom let alone from the hook-nosed teacher who had now gone very pale and for good reason. Harry had read, in a book meant for Muggleborns, that ancient houses held a lot of weight in the wizarding world and had done a bit of research finding out that she belonged to one. Apparently the Potters had been around for a long time and that meant attacking one was, legally, a bad idea.

After a few minutes Snape seemed to regain his senses and continue the lesson while completely ignoring Harry. Pairing up with Neville she inwardly sighed, she hadn't really meant to lose her temper like that but he did deserve it. Looking round Harry noticed that the Slytherins were not only not smiling anymore but actually shooting her glares which she ignored.

Lilith and Jamie had paired together as had Lavender and had paired with Parvati which left Hermione with a redhead who Neville called Ron Weasley. This last pair seemed to be arguing over something and Harry wanted to step in but thought giving Snape a real reason to punish her would be too tempting for him.

After they had been brewing for a while Snape seemed to regain his composure and started telling the class as a whole how one of his Slytherins had perfectly stewed his horned slugs. Losing interest Harry turned back to the cauldron she was sharing with Neville just in time to stop him blowing it up.

"No," she said kindly but still grabbing his arm tightly so he couldn't add the ingredients "You can't put them in without taking the cauldron off the fire first, porcupine quills react horribly with high temperatures."

"Yes foolish boy!" Shouted Snape from across the class "You would have melted that cauldron twenty points fr-" but he didn't get any further.

Harry had placed her hand under the table and clenched it tightly focusing all the hatred she had from all the bullies she had known and flicking her eyes to one of the jars behind Snape quickly opened her fist. The jar exploded and the flying glass wedged itself deep into Snape's shoulders and back and covering him in a thick yellow paste. Snape screamed and ran out of the classroom leaving a completely stunned class.

Harry was the first to pick up her equipment and leave the classroom but her actions were quickly followed by all the Gryffindors, the Slytherins stayed seated looking at the door in shock.

When Neville finally did catch up to Harry they somehow reached an unspoken agreement not to talk about it and instead sat down in an unused classroom doing the Transfiguration homework they were given the day before.

At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door. When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks.

Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "_Back_, Fang —_back_" Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open "Hang on," he said "_Back_, Fang." He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.

There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling; a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.

"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Neville and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked. Harry giggled and Neville shot her a betrayed look.

The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but Harry and Neville pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons.

Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes. Harry and Neville were delighted to hear Hagrid call Filch "that old git."

"An' as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime"

"What would he do? Lick her to death?" Harry giggled.

"Yer well talkin' about attackin' people, what's this about Snape? Eh?" Hagrid

"He started being really unfair to me so I may have shouted at him a little."

"Aye an' put him in the hospital wing. Whatever was in those jars will keep him there till Sunday at least."

"That wasn't me." she said hotly, she knew Dumbledore would know but he said to keep her abilities quiet and she didn't know if Hagrid was among those Dumbledore wanted to know "I had my wand in my bag all the time."

"It's true, she did." said Neville backing her up.

Hagrid didn't look convinced but he did at least give up questioning them about it. While Neville started up a conversation about Quidditch, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cosy. It was a cutting from the _Daily Prophet_:

_GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST _

_Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied one week earlier. _

"_But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokes goblin this afternoon._

'Who would want to break into Gringotts?' Thought Harry 'And they got away as well. Could it have been the same vault Dumbledore emptied? The dates match.' Harry couldn't get that thought out of her head and as Harry and Neville walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse, Harry thought that none of the lessons he'd had so far had given her as much to think about as tea with Hagrid.

Where was that little package Dumbledore had picked up now? What was it? And why was it worth attempting to break into Gringotts to get at it?

* * *

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office chair behind a copy of _Transfiguration Today_, he wasn't actually reading it as he didn't need to, he had forgotten more about Transfiguration than most people would ever know, but like many things Albus did, he it was just for show. He was also pretending to be listening to his Potions' Master who was currently pacing back and forth in front of his desk. Pretending to do many things at once made people believe he was all knowing and had everything planed out from the start.

Albus was doing neither of the things he was pretending to do simply because all of his considerable brain power was currently attempting to figure out Harriet Potter. One thing he knew for a fact however was that the man in front of him definitely had the measure of the young girl all wrong.

" – mediocre, arrogant as her father, a determined rule-breaker, delighted to find herself famous, attention-seeking and impertinent – "

"You see what you expect to see, Severus." said Dumbledore, without raising his eyes from his paper "Other teachers report that the girl is modest, likable, and remarkably talented. Personally, I find her an engaging child. In fact with that, added to her temper, I would be tempted to call her Lilly if it were not for her hair colour."

Severus flinched slightly but soon masked it "And what about the attack on me Headmaster? She should be expelled for that!"

"And you should have been fired for your actions in that class, Severus." Albus said quietly but the threat was there regardless "Do not push her because I do not think she will go so easily on you next time."

"Easily?" Severus nearly shouted "She could have killed me!"

"If she wanted to kill you she would have done so and there wouldn't have been a thing you could have done, all it would have taken would have been for those shards to contact a little higher and gone through your throat." Severus' eyes widened at this realisation "Leave her alone, it is safer for your health."

It was obvious Severus was struggling to accept the fact a first year had so much power over him and Albus was doing nothing to correct it but finally gave in and turned towards the door.

Dumbledore turned a page, and said, without looking up, "Keep an eye on Quirrell, won't you?"

A brief nod was the only response he got before the door swung closed. Albus sighed and put down the paper. What was he going to do?

Harriet was powerful, scarily so, almost on the same level as Tom Riddle when he came to school, all those years ago but, thankfully, Harriet was using her power for good. Admittedly her attacking his staff was less than desirable but Severus had deserved it in her eyes, bullying a first year because he didn't know something about the practical work Severus was supposed to be teaching him. Dumbledore was just thankful that she had shown enough raw power in her other classes that he could pass off the incident as accidental magic.

She would be important in the next war even if the prophecy could not be applied to her. Once again Albus wondered if putting her into that orphanage was the best idea. Should he have just ignored Minerva's pleas against giving her to the Dursleys? It would have given her powerful magical protections against any form of home invasion but Minerva would not accept a young girl being given to what she thought were horrible beasts. No, Minerva would have followed through on her threat to take her away from them and as she wouldn't have wanted to harm her she would have been to walk through the blood wards as if they weren't there.

And then there was Neville Longbottom who was the only boy he knew that was born at the end of July and yet as far as Albus could tell _didn't_ have a 'power the dark lord knows not.'

Albus hated prophecies.

Harriet was not a boy born as the seventh month dies, owing to the fact she was not a boy, and Neville had never been marked as the Dark Lord's equal.

'Maybe' Albus mused 'It was originally meant for Neville but as Tom only heard 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies' and instead of waiting for information which would let him attack Neville and going after Harriet when Black told him the secret... Would that make the prophecy switch to Harriet? Obviously the words couldn't change but maybe she is now the chosen one. Or maybe Neville gets 'Marked' latter. Or maybe _both_ of them have to do it'

Or maybe the whole thing was now useless and incorrect and Albus was sitting there giving himself a headache for no reason at all.

Albus _really _hated prophecies.

And then there was Quirrell, Albus was sure he was being controlled by Voldemort. It was his plan to bring Tom out into the open that is why he had set up an easily surpassed assault course with a fake stone at the end which instead of the Elixir Of Life produced a lethal and little known toxin. He didn't expect Tom to be able to get the stone out of the mirror but if he did it would simply kill Quirrell who really, was dead now anyway.

Albus would spend this year studying Quirrell and, if he was correct, Tom. There were many different ways to become immortal, each darker and more horrific than the last but Albus knew of only two that could save you from a killing curse. On the one hand there was Horcruxes, objects in which were placed a piece of your soul which tied the rest of your soul to the earth even if your body was destroyed. And then there was amulet of Hectus which, when given the correct sacrifice, bound your magic core to your soul and prevented both from departing the word until somebody deactivated it by dipping it a bowl of tears.

Albus hoped beyond hope that he used the latter; it made it more difficult for him to be destroyed because the amulet was nearly impossible to trace as it gave off no magical signature. He could have buried it under his favourite tree and nobody would ever know. And yet Albus still hoped it was the case.

During his day in Diagon Alley with Harriet, and the time spent invisible at the back of her classes, he had noticed energy originating from her scar. This could be part of Tom's magical core blasted apart by the spell that defeated him... or, if he used Horcruxes... it could be part of his soul embedded in Harriet's skull which meant he would have to figure out a way of removing it without killing her. Well he would find out this year... he just hoped Quirrell wouldn't try to retrieve the stone too early, which was why he lent _fluffy_ from Hagrid. Hagrid would, eventually let slip the way of controlling the beast but only while either drunk, via Quirrell, or lulled into a false sense of security, via one of the students.

But the assault course had served another purpose of getting Neville to run it and test his abilities and to see if he wanted the stone for himself or to save it, but Albus was beginning to think he could use it for Harriet now instead, or if he could manage it both. He had already given Harriet a book which could lead her to the deathly hallows if she was clever enough. After his day with her, Albus was sure she would use them for good unlike himself who would only use them for selfish purposes.

His mother and sister floated into view in front of his closed eyelids.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself he opened his eyes and looked to his left "What do you think Fawkes?"

Fawkes trilled and to anyone else it would have just been music but Albus understood what he meant.

"I suppose not, I will keep an eye on both of them and give them an equal chance. Forget the prophecy they are too full of riddles to understand before it is all over anyway, no I will test them both and we shall go from there"

It was definitely going to be an interesting year, but the one thing Albus really couldn't get his head around was how easily everyone had believed he had been able to convince Nicholas to give him the stone. He shook his head, the very thought he would entrust it to anyone or that Albus knew more ways to protect it was laughable. No the Flamels had forgotten more on _any_ subject than Albus would ever know... Except one.

Albus brought himself out of his musings and opened his desk draw. It was not filled of treasures as one might expect from looking round the rest of his office. No, his draw contained nothing of monetary value. A picture of a long broken family, an old worn copy of _The Tale of Three Brothers _that had extensive notes written in its margins, a _very_ old invisibility cloak, an old Gryffindor scarf and a wand. The same wand that Ollivander had asked about over the summer, pulling it out he felt warmth run up his arm that he hadn't felt in a very long time.

He knew that the time to pass on the two that he had found drew close; he didn't think it would happen for a few years yet but it was useful to be prepared. If he found a way to pass on the wand, even if it was sooner that he would like, he would take it. 'The cloak can be given to her for Christmas... just to mess with her head' Albus thought chuckling as he reached for a lemon drop.

* * *

**I hope you liked the trip into Albus' mind.**

**Danni xxx**


	5. The Rise of a Warrior

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

"Just relax Neville," Harry said calmly "If you're panicking you are more likely to make a mistake. Just breathe deeply and steady yourself."

The Gryffindor and Slytherin first years had all gathered on the smooth flat grass not far from the castle for their first flying lesson.

"But what if I fall off?" Neville asked shakily.

"Then Madame Pomfrey will fix you up in a couple of seconds flat. But it will be so useful to learn how to fly, you need this, you can do this. So just take deep breaths, ok?"

"Alright." said Neville with a new found determination.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" a voice barked "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Their teacher, Madam Hooch, had arrived. She had short, gray hair even though she only looked about thirty. But Harry was drawn to her eyes which were yellow like a hawk.

Shaking her head to clear the thoughts of those strangely mesmerising eyes Harry glanced down at her broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "And say 'Up!'"

"UP!" everyone shouted.

Harry's broom jumped into her hand at once, but it was one of the few that did.

Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Lavender's hadn't moved at all. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid; thought Harry there was a quaver in Lavender's voice that said only too clearly that she wanted to keep her feet on the ground. Harry was happy to note however that Neville's broom had gotten halfway to his hand before dropping back down.

Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Harry was delighted when she was told her grip was perfect.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle — three — two — three." she blew the whistle in a short sharp burst and twenty brooms lifted into the air.

Harry gasped. Air rushed through her hair, and her robes whipped out behind her — and in a rush of fierce joy she realized she'd found something she could do without being taught — this was easy, this was _wonderful_. Everything else fell away and the only thing in her mind was the feeling of adrenaline pumping through her veins and the feel of complete joy in her chest.

"Hey Harry," said the excited voice of Neville piercing her thoughts what could have been hours later "This is amazing eh?"

"Oh yeah." said Harry even though 'Amazing' didn't really cover it to her mind. She did a loop the loop to let some of her excitement out.

Neville who was looking extremely joyously copied her laughing madly but as he got to the apex of his loop Harry noticed something wrong. A small spherical object had fallen out of his pocket and was hurtling towards the floor.

Caught by inspiration or madness, it was impossible to tell which, Harry leaned forward and dived after it. Wind whistled in her ears, mingled with the screams of people watching — she stretched out his hand — a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull her broom straight, and she toppled gently onto the grass with the strange ball clutched safely in her fist laughing madly.

Madame Hooch landed next to her and immediately began checking her for injury. Standing up when she couldn't find any problems she nodded looking impressed.

"Nice catch Potter, it's a shame first years can't have their own booms. You would make an excellent seeker but not on any of the school brooms. I suggest you buy yourself a decent broom next summer and try out for your team next year."

Harry had no idea what the word 'seeker' referred to but it was clear she was being paid a complement.

"Err... Thanks." she said not knowing what else to add onto that. She gave the object she had caught back to Neville who had just landed next to her.

"Thank you Harry. I thought it would break for sure, you're not hurt are you?" he said quickly.

"No that was brilliant." Harry half shouted looking around. She was still unsure why most people in the class were staring at her but she paid them no mind and jumped back onto her broom "Come on Neville." she grinned at the fussing boy and shot into the sky once more.

* * *

It was lunch time and Harry had managed to finally get a full conversation out of Lilith, who, as it turned out, knew almost everything you could know about the wizarding sport known as Quidditch.

"So that's why everyone was staring at you like you were some kind of goddess. I mean killing off a dark lord when you were a toddler is one thing but that catch should have been impossible." she said seriously.

Harry was pretty sure she had gotten the logic in that statement slightly wrong but wasn't about to correct her lest she go back to her non-talkative state.

"So what kind of broom should I get for next year then?" asked Harry genuinely curious about the sport now she actually knew a bit about it. It seemed a bit bloodthirsty but if she was honest with herself that only excited her more.

"Well obviously you could get a Nimbus Two-Thousand" she said excitedly but as though Harry should in fact already know this "They are the best but a Cleansweep Seven would be a lot cheaper and almost as good. I did hear that Nimbus was bringing out a new broom soon, it might be out by the time summer comes round so you might want to wait until then to actually buy one"

"Thanks Lilith, you have been dead helpful. It is really nice to be able to have a conversation with you; you should talk to people more eh?" Harry said smiling as Lilith blushed madly muttering something out of Harry's hearing.

"Harry," said a familiar voice behind her "What have I been hearing about fifty-foot dives to catch an object which probably wouldn't have even broken when it hit the _grass_ floor."

"Hey Ches," Harry said smiling "So the story has gotten to the Hufflepuffs already, has it?"

"Well it would do," said Hannah who had come over with Susan "It was a very good catch, if the story is to be believed."

"Well killing off Voldemort," a small shiver went round all those within earshot "Was nothing compared to that dive according to Lilith here." said Harry smiling gesturing to the now scarlet girl.

"No... I didn't..." Lilith started but she seemed unable to string more than two words together.

"I am just messing Lills." said Harry with a wink. Lilith blushed even deeper but had a smile on her face as she mouthed the word 'Lills' to herself.

"Sit down," Harry said turning back to the Hufflepuffs "You're making the place look messy."

"Are we allowed?" Susan said casting a quick, worried glance over the teachers' table.

"I don't see why not. I hardly think they will come and shout at you for spending time with friends." Harry chuckled.

Both Susan and Hannah beamed at being classed as friends and sat down instantly.

"So what did you catch anyway? Nobody seems to know." Hannah asked.

"It was Neville's remembrall. His Gran sent it him today and he still had it in his pocket when we were flying, which was fine until he started doing loops." Harry explained. Neville had told her all about the little glass ball when they were walking up to the castle.

That thought however only made Harry wonder where the forgetful boy had gotten to, he had left to go the bathroom but that was before Lilith had started explaining about Quidditch. Scanning the table she found him sitting next to the Ron Weasley and talking to three Slytherins who had apparently wandered over to the Gryffindor table. Satisfied that he hadn't gotten lost and needed someone to send out a search party for him Harry re-joined the conversation which had moved onto the Herbology homework due later that day.

But honestly Harry wasn't really putting much thought into it, she tried to convince herself that it was just because she was excited about the prospect of playing Quidditch and she was still slightly high off the adrenaline in her system but honestly she found herself fantasising about a pair of beautiful yellow eyes a lot more than she would like to admit.

Harry was brought back to earth by Susan encasing one her hands with one of her own and shaking lightly.

"Huh?" said Harry intelligently.

"Herbology," said Susan giggling "We are going to be late."

Harry looked around and saw that most people had already left the hall, even Hannah and Lilith, who were talking together, were walking away from the table already.

"Oh yeah... Right let's go." said Harry picking up her bag. And then looking down at her other hand and seeing that Susan still had hold of it. Susan let go blushing "Come on then." continued Harry pretending not to notice. If Susan didn't want to hold her had she wouldn't make her but she couldn't help but feel slightly hurt at her seeming unwillingness to display they were friends.

Herbology was actually quite a subdued affair, Hannah still hadn't really gotten used to talking with 'The-Girl-Who-Lived' and other than brief periods where she would apparently forget who Harry was, and therefore start talking normally, all she really did was blush and nod or shake her head. Susan continued to act weird and seemingly didn't want to be around Harry, even going as far as not looking in her eyes towards the end of the lesson even when talking to her. And Neville... Well Harry wasn't sure what was wrong with Neville. After the flying class Neville had been happy, excited and confident, now however he was back to his normal quiet self and he didn't seem to want to explain why. So the four of them were nearly silent when they went about pruning their... Actually Harry didn't know what it was but didn't want to break the strange silence to ask.

Harry found it strange but Susan distancing herself was somehow much worse than Neville not talking to her. She supposed she was closer to Susan than Neville but she had been close to him as well, she sat next to him in almost every class after all. But Harry couldn't stop thinking about why Susan would pull away.

In fact Harry had spent a fair amount of time awake that night wondering why Susan wouldn't hold her hand especially after she had seemed so happy at being called a friend. It was something that friends did, hold hands. Wasn't it?

With no shortage of irritation Harry rolled out of bed, there was no way she could sleep at this point without purposely tiring herself out first. Pulling on a hooded top and some jogging pants she picked up her copy of _The Tale of Three Brothers_, went down into the common room and settled in front of a fire. It must have been late because there was nobody else down there. It made Harry feel so peaceful, her dorm room was no less quiet but something in the way such a usually busy room was so still appealed to her.

She snuggled back into her armchair and opened her book with no small amount of care. She slowly ran her fingers across the first page and the words that had been inked in simply to feel the high quality paper it was written in but in doing so she noticed something odd. She ran her fingers over the words again just to make sure she wasn't mistaken but soon realised she wasn't. The start of each of the words: the B of Blade, the O of Oval and the T of Triangle, had all been written with much more force than was necessary but the rest of the letters were all inked much lighter.

'B, O, T?' Thought Harry 'BOT?' but Harry couldn't see either of these pointing to anything... Maybe she was missing something. She stared thinking about everything she could remember the headmaster saying to her but she couldn't remember him saying anything about any bots.

Just then the portrait hole opened and in walked Hermione, Neville and Ron. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into nearby armchairs. It was a while before any of them said anything. Neville, indeed, looked as if he'd never speak again.

"What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally "If any dog needs exercise that one does."

"You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" Hermione snapped "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Ron suggested "I wasn't looking at its feet; I was too busy with its heads."

"No, _not _the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something." she stood up, glaring at them.

"Hold on," Harry said causing the other three to jump "Did you just say a dog, which had more than one head?"

"Yeah," said Ron after he had gotten over the shock of Harry turning up out of nowhere "A three headed dog, massive thing. It was in that third floor corridor the Headmaster said was out of bounds."

Harry stared at him deadpan.

"So let me get this straight, the Headmaster tells the whole school that the third floor corridor is off limits to 'everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death' and you decide 'Hey lets go check it out.'"

"No it wasn't like that." said Hermione who seemed to need to explain that she wasn't stupid "Ron got into an argument with Draco Malfoy at lunch today who then challenged him to a wizard's duel naming midnight at the trophy room the time and place. He and Neville went out to meet him and I followed out of the portrait hole to try and stop them but when I tried to turn back and come into the common room the fat lady had already left so I went with them. But when we got to the trophy room we found out Malfoy had sent us into a trap and told Filch we would be there. While we were running we accidentally ran into the corridor."

Harry was thoughtful for a second before saying "A trapdoor you say?"

"Yes" said Hermione glad someone found this interesting "Do you know anything about it?"

"Well I know Dumbledore took a small object out of Gringotts over the summer and that seven days later Gringotts was broken into and the goblins said that the vault broken into had been empty for a week. The only place safer than Gringotts is Hogwarts and not many would be willing to face a three headed dog no matter what the prize."

Their conversation didn't last much longer but as Harry got into her bed for the second time that night she cursed as she now had even more to keep her awake 'Oh well,' thought Harry rationally 'At least now I know why Neville was acting weird.'

* * *

Over the next few weeks Harry, Ron and Neville all talked about what the small object that Dumbledore had removed from Gringotts was but they didn't exactly have much to go on. Susan suggested, when they told her and Hannah everything one Herbology lesson, that they might have better luck finding out who he would do such a favour of hiding a 'wonderful and much sought after item' for and then what objects _they_ might have. The only problem with this method was that Dumbledore had lived so long and done so many great things it was hard to know everyone who he had made friends with or might owe favours to.

Finally they decided not to do anything unless they received further information, and knowing the headmaster, Harry was sure that they would.

But with everything going on, time was slipping by very quickly to Harry and it came as a complete surprise when two months had already passed. This in itself brought about another problem Harry had been trying to ignore since the first day she met the headmaster — Halloween.

Harry had never really liked Halloween, it always seemed such a pointless holiday to her but now... Now she was completely unsure how to feel about it. Could she just sit there like she always did mostly ignoring the people she saw celebrating?

She could not celebrate that much was certain but she was unsure whether she should mourn or not. It was the day her parents died but after nine years of not knowing that, she didn't know how to proceed now she did.

When she admitted this to Susan, after making Neville distract Hannah for a bit, she seemed like she knew all too well of the problem Harry faced.

"When my auntie told me of the date when my parents died I tried my hardest to make the day special, but it just seemed wrong for some reason. Now all I do is take some time for myself and think about how different things would be if they were alive, I try and imagine what they would say to me about everything that had gone on this past year and stuff like that."

Harry took this piece of advice to heart... Or at least she tried but like every other time she made specific plans, something went wrong. This time the 'something' was a red-haired boy in her class. It was just after charms class when she heard the voice of Ron Weasley who was actually quite a nice guy... When he wasn't being impossibly rude or insensitive.

"It's no wonder no one can stand her," he said to Neville as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor "She's a nightmare, honestly." he was clearly upset about not being able to cast the levitation charm correctly, and was taking his anger out on Hermione, who had tried to help him in class by explaining what he was doing wrong.

Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past her. It was Hermione. Harry caught a glimpse of her face — and was startled to see that she was in tears.

"I think she heard you." said Neville looking as though he wanted to follow her.

"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends."

"She does have friends actually, _Ronald_, but just because _you_ have no possible faults doesn't mean everybody else is perfect." Harry snarled at him then took off down the corridor.

Harry ran after Hermione but as she had stopped to shout at Ron for a bit she had lost her. She stopped to think for a second before coming to the conclusion that the nearest bathroom was a safe bet.

She ran down the next corridor and into the bathroom just as she heard Parvati's voice.

"...mione, you can't be taking that idiot Ron seriously."

Hermione's voice, as well as her sobs came from a stall halfway down the room "It's true though isn't it? I don't have any friends."

"You don't have any friends because nobody knows how to approach you Hermione," Harry said joining into the conversation "I for one actually quite like you but you don't let anybody near you."

This statement was only met with silence but Harry considered that a success, for one, Hermione seemed to have stopped crying and two; silence with her usually meant she was thinking.

"You, you like me?" she asked after a couple of minutes.

"Yeah," said Parvati before Harry could even open her mouth "I mean you know nothing of fashion or gossip but that's what Lavender is for, right?" she giggled "You're a decent girl but like Harry says you don't let anyone near you."

Hermione unlocked the cubical door and walked out. Tears stained her face and her eyes were all puffy but oddly there was a ghost of a smile on her lips.

"Thanks," she said "Look I am going to be in here for a while, I need to fix my face, so you two should go to class, I will be fine."

"Well..." started Parvati clearly unsure "If you are sure."

"I will stay," Harry said calmly "I don't really feel like going to class today anyway." Parvati didn't look like she understood but nodded and left anyway.

Hermione on the other hand did catch the meaning "Are you sure you want to stay and babysit me today of all days?"

"Are you kidding," Harry asked with a brave stab at humour "I have been trying to talk to you for two months and couldn't get past your defences, I don't think I will ever see you this vulnerable again, I have to take my shots when I can."

She giggled softly and then flew at Harry with a hug. And just like that in what was possibly the most girly moment of Harry's life, they became friends. Harry knew she would probably always value Ches' or Neville's friendships more but Hermione did seem like a good person. Hermione told Harry all about her life in muggle school, about how she never had any friends except for people who wanted her to do their homework for them and when she wouldn't they would get angry with her so she receded into books.

'Hermione has clearly had a hard life.' thought Harry as they walked back to the common room, neither wanting to face the people in the great hall even if that meant skipping the feast. They would both be hungry tomorrow morning but they would prefer that over attempting to join in the festivities.

It was much sooner than they thought it would be when everyone piled in through the portrait hole from the feast and Harry who still didn't really want to be around large groups of people retreated up the stairs to the dormitories she did however give a small smile as both Parvati and Lavender went over to Hermione and began talking to her. It was good that Hermione was making friends, it would probably be good for Parvati and Lavender to have someone bossing them around as well, it wasn't like either of them were particularly motivated when it came to schoolwork.

Harry got changed for bed, she wouldn't be going to sleep yet but she wanted to snuggle down into her covers and reread _The Tale of Three Brothers_ there had to be a hidden meaning somewhere the items couldn't be real or someone would have found them by now. So what did the old man want her to figure out?

But before she could start reading she heard a distant crash somewhere in the castle. Curiosity flooded through her but she didn't move 'I'm not even dressed,' she thought 'I will find out what happened later.'

Later actually was much sooner than she thought as not long after that the other five girls traipsed up the stairs with a plate of magically replacing sandwiches. From what Harry could work out from them, as they kept interrupting each other and going off on tangents, a troll had been set loose in the castle and Professor Quirrell had run into the feast screamed that it was in the dungeons and then fainted right in the middle of the hall. Dumbledore, who had to control everyone by firing loud bangs from his wand, told everyone to go to their common rooms. Neville and Ron however had gone looking for Hermione as Parvati had shouted at Ron for his earlier words and told him she was in the bathroom crying. When they had gotten to the bathroom however they had found the troll in it attempting to tear it apart.

Not knowing if Hermione was in any of the cubicles the troll was so bent on destroying the two boys started to attack it. They didn't get very far, however until Neville had the bright idea to use the levitation spell to slam the troll's club into its own head causing the troll to fall backwards into the cubicles. The combination of the weight of the troll and the quality of the Hogwarts plumbing system meant that the metal pipe the troll landed on went straight through the troll's thick hide. The now dead troll was still being removed from Hogwarts.

"So let me get this straight," said Harry "Neville, the round faced boy who earlier this year was having trouble with the simplest of spells has just faced a fully grown mountain troll and come out with the title 'Trollslayer'." she turned to Parvati who had used the word before.

"Well the Weasley twins," started Parvati "You know the redheads, that's what they started calling him and everyone kind of started using it as well."

"Well we will have to tease him about that," giggled Harry "And what about you Hermione," she said turning to the now smirking girl "Ron seems to have come looking for you to warn you about the troll."

"I know," she said happily "And he apologised for what he said. I don't think we will ever be best of friends but we can at least be civil."

Harry was happy about that she didn't want to choose sides she liked both Ron and Hermione. Both had major character flaws but who didn't?

Picking her book back up, which was now upside down on top of her bed, the three inked in words caught her eye once again but oddly she thought they said something else. She knew they said Blade, Oval, Triangle. But from this angle and with her mind on other things she thought they said Blubber, Oddment, Tweak. Her mouth dropped open and she almost dropped the book.

How could she not have seen it before? The way the star of each word was pushed in harder and now she thought back she noticed that as he said those words, the headmaster's eyes flicked towards her. She hadn't even noticed back then or if she had she hadn't thought anything of it but now she understood and now she had another clue.

Nitwit. She had no idea what it meant in relation to the strange picture but she would find out. Just to prove to him she could do it, to prove she was worthy of his faith.

Just before she fell asleep Harry heard a beautiful sound, a music that was completely otherworldly luring her into unconsciousness. There was only one other that heard this siren song and he simply looked at the source with a raised eyebrow, knowing he wouldn't get an answer even if he asked.

* * *

**And no it's not 'Now I Triumph With Infinite Time'. And if you don't know what this means you should read A Butterfly Effect by **_**SlyGoddess**_

**Danni xxx**


	6. Christmas Delights

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

After the insanity that was October it was a shock to Harry when the Christmas break arrived without further incident. In fact the only really noteworthy thing happening was the first two Quidditch games, Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw and Gryffindor versus Slytherin.

Ravenclaw easily beat Hufflepuff who, according to Lilith, were counting on their seeker to win them the game. Cedric Diggory however was at the other end of the pitch when Cho Chang caught the snitch. She pointed out the Hufflepuff had clearly underestimated the second year girl and therefore had not bothered to mark her.

The other game was far more interesting though, the Slytherin team were rather incompetent. They clearly couldn't play as a team and the Gryffindor chasers, and the 'Whirlwind Twins', took full advantage of. Despite the incompetence of the Slytherin team the Gryffindors were by no means guaranteed a victory.

This wasn't because the Slytherins cheated, they did it just didn't make much difference. No this was because of a boy called Cormac McLaggen, who as it turns out was actually a terrible seeker. Terrance Higgs, the Slytherin seeker, had no problems catching the snitch, not that it did him much good. The final scores had twenty points between them, with Gryffindor in the lead.

Harry, now she had actually seen a game of Quidditch, was even more excited about playing the fast paced game and couldn't until she get her own broom next year. But again she had to try and convince herself that part of it wasn't being closer to the exotic eyes of Madame Hooch. Harry just couldn't think of why they made her brain turn to mush every time she saw them, all thought just left her as yellow met green, which was not very helpful when the flying instructor came to talk to her after the Gryffindor match.

"... Because you are going to aren't you?"

'Holy crap!' Harry thought 'I have no idea what she has just asked!' fortunately the answer she was looking for was obviously, yes.

"Err... yeah" Harry said unintelligently.

"Oh good, it will be good to watch you" Was the serious reply "What broom have you decided on?"

"Well I was thinking of the new Nimbus that is coming out..." Harry started relieved she had gotten away with it. Harry actually had to be dragged away from the pretty woman otherwise she would probably have talked to her about Quidditch all day.

'Wait, _pretty woman?_' Harry had thought 'Where the hell did _that_ come from?' shaking her head she let herself be led to Hagrid's hut to talk the large man.

Hermione had, possibly just to shut Harry up about the sport, lent her a book called _Quidditch Through the Ages_ which turned out to be a very interesting read. She learned that there were seven hundred ways of committing a Quidditch foul and that all of them had happened during a World Cup match in 1473; that Seekers were usually the smallest and fastest players, and that most serious Quidditch accidents seemed to happen to them and that, although people rarely died playing Quidditch, referees had been known to vanish and turn up months later in the Sahara Desert, why Harry couldn't tell as the book didn't say, but it was quite an interesting statistic.

Harry, it turns out, was the only first year Gryffindor girl staying at Hogwarts over Christmas but she didn't mind, she was used to being alone and despite having lots of friends at Hogwarts she still liked to get away occasionally for some quiet reading. Due to this she had most of her holiday homework done by the second day of the Christmas break, which was fortunate really as that was the day she was introduced to the Weasley twins. The four Weasleys currently in the school were saying for the holidays due to the fact their parents and sister were going to Romania to visit their second eldest brother, Charlie.

The twins were pranksters at heart and almost never refused turning someone purple or helping Peeves changing the Christmas carols from the suits of armour to include swearwords. Strangely they were, apparently, on quite friendly terms with the poltergeist due to the fact they had on more than one occasion cast spells to pull off the pranks he couldn't, due to not owning a wand.

Harry had, at first, been very cold towards the twins having mistaken the pranksters for the magical version of the bullies from her orphanage but the closer she looked, the more the differences became apparent. For starters, the twins almost exclusively played tricks on their friends and the pranks that weren't directed at them were directed at people that deserved it. Like Snape.

They were trying to get Dumbledore as well, but this had such a low probability of working it didn't come into Harry's considerations.

They also didn't seem to care when they themselves fell victim to any form of prank, they seemed to consider it 'Fair game' so Harry had been planning to really get them with something but she wasn't sure what yet. But all thoughts of tricking the twins flew out her head as the twenty-fifth approached.

It was with a large grin that Harry woke up on Christmas Day to a large pile of brightly coloured packages. She did mainly get sweets, the perfect gift to get someone you're not sure will buy you something in return. But she did get a few things that had clearly been thought about. A hand carved wooden flute from Hagrid, a hand knitted sweater form Mrs Weasley, from who she hadn't expected anything, and a beautiful silver butterfly hairclip from Susan. Harry looked at the hairclip with complete disbelief. Susan had been acting very strangely lately, she was fine one minute and then wouldn't became quiet and withdrawn the next. And then this butterfly, which was lazily flapping in her hands, was beautiful it had both emeralds and sapphires in its wings and they glittered in the sunlight coming in from the window. Harry could only hope that Susan liked her book because this was...

Harry shook her head, these thoughts weren't helping.

She placed the hairclip on her bedside table and gathered up the paper but as she placed it in the bin she noticed another package that had been pushed under her bed. She retrieved it with curiosity the only other person she could think of sending her a present was Dumbledore but she couldn't see him sending her anything, true he had sent her a book for her birthday but that had been part of one of his tests, not a real present.

Picking the parcel she found was very light. She unwrapped it. Something fluid and silvery gray went slithering to the floor where it lay in gleaming folds and if it had of been possible Harry's jaw would have followed it.

This was an invisibility cloak. As in a cloak of invisibility. As in _invisibility_.

Harry looked round for a note and found one in Dumbledore's writing:

_Your father left this in my possession before he died._

_It is time it was returned to you._

_Use it well._

_T_

Harry shook her head again, this was more than she could take. This... This was her father's? And Dumbledore is just giving it to her? An eleven year old that is in his school, that's just like telling her its fine if she goes wandering around the castle at night... Or is that what he was suggesting she did?

And then she realised what she had read, no not the three useless lines about it being a family heirloom or telling her to break school rules, no it was the last line that had her staring at the parchment, gaping like a fish.

'T'

But he couldn't be serious. He couldn't possibly be suggesting what she thought he was. But if it was her father's... Who died a decade ago... And if it was still in perfect condition, it was she checked, then it had to be.

Death's invisibility cloak.

She couldn't deal with this right now. She got ready, dressing in the knitted sweater, and went downstairs to breakfast.

When she got to the great hall she shot an evil glare at the old man, a glare that would have most crapping their pants and running away, regardless of the fact she was only eleven. He laughed. Or rather, he _chuckled, _and then he went back to his bacon. It took almost every ounce of self control to walk towards the Gryffindor table and sit down next to Ron without firing curses at Dumbledore.

"You ok Harry?" said Ron in a brief period where he wasn't shoving food into his mouth.

"Yes Ron, I am fine." Harry managed to say through her teeth. Ron seemed satisfied that she either was ok or didn't want to talk about it and went back to eating.

Harry distracted herself with eating, she had never in all her life had such a Christmas dinner. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce – and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. These fantastic party favours were nothing like the feeble Muggle ones the Dursleys usually bought, with their little plastic toys and their flimsy paper hats inside.

Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him.

Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Percy nearly broke his teeth on a silver sickle embedded in his slice.

Harry watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Harry's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided.

It was with much less anger and frustration that she followed the Weasleys out into the grounds for a snowball fight; cold, wet, and gasping for breath, they returned to the fire in the Gryffindor common room.

After a meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake, everyone felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy chase Fred and George all over Gryffindor tower because they'd stolen his prefect badge. It had been Harry's best Christmas day ever and yet, she couldn't help thinking about Susan and her father's invisibility cloak.

Susan she couldn't do anything about until she came back but the cloak... She waited until she was pretty sure everyone was asleep and left Gryffindor tower in her cloak. She was just wandering, she was sure if this was another test then Dumbledore would have a way of making sure she went where he wanted her to. Sure enough, after about ten minutes she came across a half open door that looked all too tempting.

Harry looked around the room she had just entered; it seemed to be an unused classroom. The dark shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the walls, and there was an upturned wastepaper basket – but propped against the wall facing him was something that didn't look as if it belonged there, something that looked as if someone had just put it there to keep it out of the way but Harry knew this was why she was here. It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet.

There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.

Harry frowned at that, it didn't make any sense to her. She closed the door and took off her invisibility cloak, she knew Dumbledore was in the room but it wasn't important at the moment. Harry moved nearer to the mirror, wanting to find out what it did, as it was most likely magical.

She stepped in front of the mirror and her eyes widened in shock but as the shock wore off Harry felt the urge to smash the mirror arise. She had to look away, her hand clamped over her heart as if afraid it might try to escape.

"Why?" Harry asked "Why are you showing me this?"

"This is the Mirror of Erised. I trust you now know what it does?" said Dumbledore from the corner of the room, stepping out of the shadows.

Erised, Desire. Harry looked back at the inscription.

"I show you not your face but your heart's desire." she quoted.

"Yes," he said walking further into the room "What do you see, Harriet?"

"What do you see, Headmaster?" Harry shot back.

"I, Harriet? I see my family, alive and well and standing with me is the person I love, someone who even now I am not sure even existed." he said calmly "Maybe I just saw who I wanted to see."

Harry blinked, she hadn't actually expected him to answer, although it was probably because she wouldn't have told him what she saw otherwise and now she couldn't not tell him, not after he had told her.

"Sometimes..." Harry started attempting to fight off the emotions that surrounded her "When I am just about to wake up. I feel these arms, really strong arms, holding me and I feel so safe. But if I open my eyes they disappear so I never got to see who it was." here she had to pause for a second to gather herself, she would not cry in front of Dumbledore. She turned back to the mirror where a woman had her arms wrapped around her. She couldn't see her eyes because they were closed but she knew they would be as green as hers and they would clash with her bright red hair "Mum?" she asked in a shaky voice. She shook her head "I guess my heart's desire, headmaster, is to have someone that loves me."

"You will have that Harriet, maybe not now but one day your friends will love you, I myself have grown rather fond of you but you should not dwell on dreams and forget to live, Harriet. All good things take time. You should not obsess over what this mirror shows you but now, if you ever come across it again, you will now be prepared. Goodnight Harriet"

Nodding at the obvious dismissal Harry threw the cloak around her again and left. But her thoughts were still chaotic; she couldn't stop thinking about the image of her mother. Well that and the fact Dumbledore had trusted her enough to tell her what he did, it filled her with an emotion she couldn't quite place.

* * *

Harry became rather distant with everyone following Christmas day she didn't mean to but she couldn't stop thinking about the mirror. She wanted to see it again, she knew it would be painful, but it was a good pain, or at least a pleasurable one. It was something she wanted no matter how much it hurt her, no matter how angry she was when she first saw it.

She knew it probably wasn't healthy to be obsessing over this. Especially when there was so many other things going on in her life as well. She tried to distract herself with thoughts of Susan, the invisibility cloak, the castle and magic itself.

As a result the rest of the holidays were spent by Harry wandering the halls of Hogwarts or reading one of the many books in the Hogwarts library. She only stopped this when the other students returned.

Neville thanked her for the sweets and calmly asked her to stop calling him 'The Trollsalyer', which she had put on the note with his present. Hermione launched herself into a long rant about how useful the book of charms Harry had given her was. Hannah blushed and mumbled something about not expecting presents off heroes.

But all these responses had been easily predicted, but Harry couldn't even begin to guess what Susan would do.

As it turns out she didn't have anything to worry about, Susan seemed rather happy with her book as she ran up to Harry and hugged her as soon as she saw her.

Harry had given her one of the many versions of the book _Alice in Wonderland_ so she could understand who Ches was.

"...and I have missed you so much." she said, speaking very fast.

Harry resisted the urge to ask why she didn't come say goodbye before she left, if she cared so much. She didn't want any more problems than she already had.

That was however just what she got as both Neville and Ron, who had gone to visit Hagrid, sprinted up to the four girls and explained that he had let slip about the package guarded by the three headed dog, which he apparently called Fluffy.

"So," said Susan, clearly wanting to recap "Hagrid told you that the package is guarded by not only... Er... _Fluffy_... But other teachers have pitched in as well." she stopped with a look that clearly said 'Why did you need five minutes to explain that?'

"Ugh... Yeah." said Ron "Oh it's also to do with a guy called Nicholas Flamel."

"What?" Harry nearly shrieked "Nicholas Flamel, as in _The_ Nicholas Flamel? Of course it is." she said answering her own question "He an Dumbledore were alchemy partners." that part she had come across in one of the history books she had bought in Diagon Alley... In fact now she thought about it... It was Dumbledore who suggested she buy that book "And that means the package is actually the _Philosopher's Stone_!" she ended in a low excited whisper which did not get the response she was looking for. Only Hermione gasped.

"What's the _Philosopher's Stone._" mimicked Hannah. Then she seemed to realise who she had just made fun of and blushed heavily, Harry however almost started laughing and probably would have if the situation had of been different.

"The Philosopher's Stone." Hermione started with what Harry called her 'lecture voice' "Can turn any metal into pure gold and it can produce the Elixir of Life, which makes the drinker immortal. Honestly don't you four read?"

"No wonder Snape is trying to steal it!" said Ron.

"Snape?" asked Harry.

"Yeah," Ron said nodding "We saw him after Halloween," he indicated towards Neville "With his leg all cut up and he was talking about Fluffy so we think he is trying to steal it."

"No, you think he is trying to steal it Ron," Neville said calmly "I am not too sure."

"Why else would he be trying to get past it?" Ron shot back.

"And Hagrid just let all this slip did he?" Harry asked, she didn't want to take this too lightly but there was a possibility that this was just another of the old man's mind games. Ron nodded seemingly convinced that Hagrid had simply slipped up in telling them "Well I don't think that Snape would try and steal something from the Headmaster so I wouldn't worry. Tell McGonagall if you feel strongly enough about it" Snape was a git but Harry didn't think he was evil.

The others soon agreed that unless something else happened they wouldn't go forward with their suspicions and the six parted ways, Hermione going back to Lavender and Parvati, Ron and Neville going back to the common room and Susan and Hannah however dragged Harry through a door to the right of the main staircase in the Entrance Hall and down another set of stairs.

"Where are we going?" all Harry received in answer was twin shushing sounds which annoyed her greatly.

"This is my home." Susan said to a painting but before Harry could ask what she was talking about the landscape swung open.

"Wait, is this your common room? You know I am not allowed in there."

"Oh who cares, the other Hufflepuffs have people from other houses all the time." Hannah said.

"Yeah so go in." said Susan pushing Harry's bum so she had no choice but to stumble into the common room.

Harry looked round the room and although they were at dungeon level, it was as dissimilar as possible from the Potions classroom. There were lots of yellow hangings with bronze outlining them and like Gryffindor Tower, it had a lot of comfortable armchairs. There were little underground tunnels leading to what Harry assumed were the dormitories, all of which had perfectly round doors, rather like barrel top. Harry almost giggled as thoughts of Hobbits ran through her mind.

"Its nice." said Harry turning to Susan, who was attempting to look innocent, and Hannah, who was giving Susan a slightly reproachful glare.

Harry was glad that Susan was back to her normal cheerful as she and Hannah were funny and Harry convinced herself that whatever was wrong had fixed itself. Even though they were doing homework Harry didn't really want to leave, but definitely didn't want to run into the caretaker after curfew, not that the word 'care' could be used to describe Filch nor his demonic cat. It was due to this Harry decided to keep her invisibility cloak with her at all times from now on.

* * *

February brought Gryffindor's second Quidditch match of the year which was against Hufflepuff, Gryffindor had lost by fifty points. The Gryffindor chasers were unmatched however the Hufflepuff seeker was vastly better than the Gryffindor one. Oliver wood, a burly fifth year who claimed to be Gryffindor's team captain, actually came up to Harry to ask if she would try out after hearing about her first flying lesson and he didn't seem put off when she reminded him that first years weren't allowed their own brooms.

"Don't worry," he said confidently "I'll talk to McGonagall, I'll make her see sense."

The next time she had seen him he was sulking in the common room with a bottle of what Fred and George called Firewhisky, a _very_ alcoholic drink.

"He's upset because if we were playing with professional standard balls then we probably would have won" one of the twins said.

"Why? What is the difference?" Harry asked.

"Bludgers are harder and faster and the snitch is faster and more unpredictable" said the other twin.

"Seekers are less important in a real Quidditch match as the chasers have more time to score so the one hundred and fifty is relatively less" continued the first.

"Why don't you reduce the amount that the snitch is worth in school games then?" asked Hermione who Harry didn't even know was listening in.

A strange look came over both of the twins' faces.

"That's not a bad idea, eh George?" said one.

"Not a bad idea at all, Fred." said the other.

Then they both disappeared to go and find McGonagall.

Harry pulled her book towards her again, she had taken to scouring the 'myths' section of the library looking for any mention of unique invisibility cloaks, stones that could raise the dead or unbeatable wands. The latter there was much evidence of, wands came up in history an awful lot, usually in the hands of a dark lord that claimed to have a wand with immense power. And what is more, like in _The Tale of Three Brothers_, the wand was usually made of elder.

Harry had made a timeline putting each wand that was made of elder on it, there were gaps but Harry honestly didn't expect any different.

The stone, if it existed, had apparently been forgotten as there was no trace of it what so ever. But this was the one of the three that she wasn't sure she wanted, it would be great to meet her parents... But the book said they would suffer...

Then there was the cloak, there was one cloak in the book she was reading, apparently owned by the writer of the book who had been given it by her father when he had passed away. She explained that it seemed to expand to be able to accommodate more people and if the wearer required it to it could become visible, and that the colour could even be changed at will. Needless to say Harry couldn't wait until the other girls were asleep so she could test it out. She had already told Hermione, Neville, Ron, Susan and Hannah about the cloak but she didn't want anybody else knowing she had one yet let alone could become visible and change colour on command.

Midnight that night saw a very excited Harry looking at herself in a mirror, wearing a Gryffindor red cloak with a broach in the shape of the Gryffindor lion tying it around her neck.

'Yes,' Harry thought 'This will do nicely.'

* * *

**Ah, excellent! A cloak of visibility. See? It makes you visible!**

**Danni xxx**


	7. The Gauntlet

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

Harry had started wearing her cloak everywhere, both McGonagall and Snape had tried to stop her but she pointed out that the uniform code allowed cloaks and as it was in her house colour it was allowed. McGonagall had accepted this and went off to explain it to the other professors, Snape had gotten angry at being proven wrong and stormed off in a huff.

Harry was also extremely pleased when Dumbledore nodded to her slightly the first time he saw her wear it, it was like she had passed some sort of expectation he had for her and made her feel giddy for the rest of the day.

Something that both annoyed and amused Harry was that the majority of the school decided to copy her and ordered their own cloaks I their house colours, even a lot of the Slytherins had started, although that was probably more due to house pride than copying Harry.

But Harry was willing to bet that theirs' couldn't make them invisible. She grinned at that, being able to turn invisible, and all she had to do was put her hood up and think 'Invisible'.

She glanced back down at the letter she was holding and her smile vanished. The letter was a reply from Ron's brother Charlie, explaining that he would be happy to take the illegal Norwegian Ridgeback Dragon that they had 'Found'. It was obvious that Charlie didn't think they found the baby dragon in the forest like they said they did, but he didn't ask any questions, which they were very thankful for.

The plan was to take the dragon, which Hagrid had named Norbert, up to the Astronomy tower at midnight and pass him off to Charlie's friends who were coming on broomsticks. That was simple enough with an invisibility cloak and what had Harry worried was far more dangerous than an illegal dragon. Hagrid had told a stranger, the same stranger who just happened to have been carrying the one thing Hagrid wanted in his pocket, how to get past fluffy.

Ron had gone off ranting about how Snape could just walk in and grab the stone, before Hagrid had reminded him that other teachers had put protections on it as well. Harry still firmly believed that if Snape was evil Dumbledore would know and would have stopped him but Harry had someone else in mind.

Professor Quirrell.

He just seemed 'Off' and Harry always felt slightly ill around him. She was also sure that his stutter was a hoax due to the fact some of the older students Harry asked about him, told her that when he taught Muggle Studies he didn't have one.

Harry looked at the clock on the wall, it was five minutes past twelve, and the dragon should already be on its way to Romania by now. Harry had asked the twins to help her in getting the dragon from Hagrid's hut to the Astronomy tower and they had not only agreed but had told her they would do it all themselves, they had laughed at her when she had tried to lend them her cloak.

"We don't need an invisibility cloak to become unseen in this castle Harrykins." they had told her.

Harry shook her head clear as the portrait hole opened and the twins walked through.

"All done." one of them said.

"No problems?" asked Harry, who was rather impressed.

"Nope." they said together.

"How?" Harry had never been able to walk around at night without running into someone; it was only due to her cloak that she had gotten away with it.

"Trade secret little sis,"

"But if you carry on like you are, we may one day bestow our knowledge upon you."

Harry merely shook her head, thanked them and went to bed, not that she managed to get to sleep. She was worried about this hooded figure that would go so far as to get a dragon egg to find out how to get past a murderous three headed dog.

Harry tried to tell herself that whoever it was, Dumbledore would get them. Dumbledore would keep the stone safe, so why didn't she believe that? The more time went on the more panicky she felt. Logically she knew that the fact that the stone _hadn't_ been taken was good and the longer it stayed safe the less likely it was that somebody would steal it became.

But the suspense was killing her. And, constantly, the decision of not telling the headmaster what she knew weighed her down. What if he didn't know? What if the stone was stolen and she could have stopped it from happening?

Harry could not have told anyone how she managed to get through all her exams without cracking up. The others seemed safe in the knowledge that Dumbledore would stop any plan to steal the stone. The only person who seemed to even consider it a problem was Ron and all he wanted to do was keep an eye on Snape.

It was the last day of her exams when she heard the one thing that she really didn't want to hear, Dumbledore had left the castle, on urgent ministry business and wouldn't be back until the next morning. She had been sitting in the common room when Ron and Neville had come and told her that they had heard Dumbledore saying goodbye to McGonagall, before he left without giving them a chance to stop him.

"Did you not tell McGonagall?" Harry asked but upon seeing Ron's face darken slightly, she wished she hadn't.

"Yes, but apparently we were talking about things that first years couldn't possibly understand." He grumbled.

"I say we have to go and save it ourselves" said Neville surprising Harry. When did he get so confident? "What if that letter was sent by whoever is trying to steal it? We should go in and grab it now before they can, if they don't know we have it then they can't get it from us."

"What even makes you think that the letter was a fake?" Harry asked.

"Because we heard Dumbledore say that the letter didn't even say why he was needed or who he needed to see." Ron said.

Harry could see that she wasn't going to change either boy's mind and honestly, at this point, she was really worried for the stone as well.

"Alright," she conceded "Let's go."

They got to the third floor corridor without much trouble and it was a simple matter to unlock the door with a muttered 'Alohomora' but playing the flute as a lullaby to a three headed dog was weird... and terrifying.

"Right," said Ron looking down into the bottomless pit that was the trapdoor "I will go first, then you Neville and then Harry so _Fluffy_ here doesn't wake up." this got nods from the other two and a second later Ron vanished down the hole "It's good, there is something soft to brake your fall." he shouted back up.

Neville jumped down and Harry waited another five seconds before following him trying to ignore the growling as she fell.

There was indeed something soft to land on; it was warm and springy... and wrapping itself around her legs!

"Agh get off me!" Harry screamed.

"Incendio!" shouted Neville. The room filled with flickering light as flame jumped from Neville's wand to the plant wrapping itself around the three of them. Within seconds the plant cringed away from the fire and left the three of them alone.

"What... Was... THAT!" Ron panted.

"Devil's Snare," said Neville quite calmly "We learnt about it in Herbology. This must have been Professor Sprout's test."

"Well," Harry said after getting her breath back "I supposed it's not a _completely_ useless subject." Neville grinned at her "Let's carry on." she grumbled.

All they could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward and Harry found herself mentally ticking off the trials against the Professors they knew had set things guarding and fearing what was yet to come.

"Can you hear something?" Ron whispered.

Harry listened. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.

"Do you think it's a ghost?"

"What could a ghost do to us? Sounds like wings to me."

"There's light ahead — I can see something moving."

They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.

"Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" said Ron.

"That doesn't make sense. Who would set that as a test?" said Neville.

Harry shrugged and walked across the room, nothing happened. She tried the door only to find it locked.

"Alohomora." Harry said already knowing it probably wouldn't work, it didn't.

"They're not birds!" Neville said suddenly "They're keys! Winged keys — look carefully. So that must mean…" he looked around the chamber while the other two squinted up at the flock of keys "…Hmm — look, Broomsticks. We are going to have to catch the key to open the door"

"Right," said Harry "Well let's get going then." she took the broom offered by Neville and took to the sky.

"We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one — probably silver like the handle." said Ron, still by the door, as Neville followed Harry.

"That one!" Harry called to the others "That big one — there — no, there — with bright blue wings — the feathers are all crumpled on one side."

However they soon realised that spotting it and catching it were two very different things. Ron could hardly aim his broom in the right direction, Neville seemed afraid of going at any useful speed and Harry, while good on a broom, had no experience of this. It was a difficult ten minutes later when Harry finally managed to corner and catch the fluttering key. She unlocked the door and released it.

"Come on." she said running through.

The next chamber was so dark they couldn't see anything at all. But as they stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight. They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces.

"Now what do we do?" Harry whispered.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" said Ron. "We've got to play our way across the room."

Behind the white pieces they could see another door.

"How?" said Neville nervously.

"I think," said Ron "we're going to have to be chessmen."

"Well that's dangerous." said Harry thinking about wizard's chess.

Ron walked up to a black knight and put his hand out to touch the knight's horse. At once, the stone sprang to life. The horse pawed the ground and the knight turned his helmeted head to look down at Ron.

"Do we — er — have to join you to get across?" the black knight nodded. Ron turned to the other two.

"This needs thinking about…" he said. "I suppose we've got to take the place of three of the black pieces…"

Harry and Neville stayed quiet, watching Ron think. Finally he said, "Now, don't be offended or anything, but neither of you are that good at chess —"

"We're not offended," said Harry quickly. "Just tell us what to do."

"Well, Harry, you take the place of that bishop, and Neville, you go there instead of that castle."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to be a knight," said Ron.

The chessmen seemed to have been listening, because at these words a knight, a bishop, and a castle turned their backs on the white pieces and walked off the board, leaving three empty squares that Harry, Ron, and Neville took.

"White always plays first in chess," said Ron, peering across the board. "Yes… look…"

A white pawn had moved forward two squares.

Ron started to direct the black pieces. They moved silently wherever he sent them. Harry's knees were trembling. What if they lost?

"Harry — move diagonally four squares to the right."

Their first real shock came when their other knight was taken. The white queen smashed him to the floor and dragged him off the board, where he lay quite still, facedown.

"Had to let that happen," said Ron, looking shaken. "Leaves you free to take that bishop, Neville, go on."

Every time one of their men was lost, the white pieces showed no mercy. Soon there was a huddle of limp black players slumped along the wall. Twice, Ron only just noticed in time that Harry and Neville were in danger.

He himself darted around the board, taking almost as many white pieces as they had lost black ones.

We're nearly there," he muttered suddenly. "Let me think — let me think…"

The white queen turned her blank face toward him.

"Yes…" said Ron softly, "It's the only way… I've got to be taken."

"What?" asked Harry sharply "No!"

"That's chess Harry. I will be fine, you need to carry on, you need to stop this and there isn't any other way"

Harry felt ill; she didn't want anyone hurt... Ron stepped forward and waited as the white queen moved towards him, she struck Ron hard across the head with her stone arm, and he crashed to the floor unconscious.

Shaking, Harry moved three spaces to the left.

The white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. They had won. The chessmen parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear. With one last desperate look back at Ron, Harry and Neville charged through the door and up the next passageway.

"He will be okay, Harry." soothed Neville.

"I Hope so." was the only reply she could give.

A disgusting smell filled their nostrils, making both of them pull their robes up over their noses. Eyes watering, they saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a troll out cold with a bloody lump on its head.

"I am glad we don't have to fight that one." Neville said "It is huge!"

He pulled open the next door, both of them hardly daring to look at what came next - but there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.

"Snape's," said Harry. "What do we have to do?"

They stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped.

"Look!" Harry seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles and read from it.

"Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,  
Two of us will help you, whichever you would find  
One among us seven will let you move ahead,  
Another will transport the drinker back instead,

Two among our number hold only nettle wine,  
Three of us are killers, waiting hidden in line.  
Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,  
To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:

First, however slyly the poison tries to hide  
You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;  
Second, different are those who stand at either end,  
But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;

Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,  
Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;  
Fourth, the second left and the second on the right  
Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight."

"Brilliant," said Harry "This isn't magic — it's logic — a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic; they'd be stuck in here forever."

"But so will we, won't we?"

"No, no it is simple enough." said Harry "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple. Actually I have a feeling I have read this before..."

"This one," Harry said after about a minute "Will take us back, while this one will take us forward." indicating to two of the seven bottles.

"There is only enough for one of us to go forward you know." Neville said.

"I know," Harry paused knowing that Neville wouldn't like her plan "You go back. No listen, go back get Ron out and Get a message to Dumbledore, I will stall as long as possible ok?"

It was clear he still didn't like it but agreed nonetheless Harry watched him drink and step through the fire before she mirrored his actions across the room.

She walked through the door and let it swing shut behind her and there in the centre of the room was Quirrell, he didn't turn but it was clear he knew she was there. She waited.

"I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter." he said.

"I thought it might have been you," she said in a voice that portrayed none of the fear that was bubbling up inside her "Ron kept insisting it was Snape but I was less sure."

Quirrell turned and smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.

"Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he? So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat. Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"

"So it was you who let the troll in?"

"Certainly. I have a special gift with trolls — you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there? Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me, went straight to the third floor to head me off — and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly.

"It really is a shame I am going to have to kill you, you would be very useful, but you are simply too nosy for your own good."

Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry.

"Now, wait quietly, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror"

It was only then that Harry realized what was standing behind Quirrell. It was the Mirror of Erised.

"What is the Mirror of Erised doing here?" she asked, trying to distract him.

Quirrell whipped his head round "What do you know of this mirror?" he demanded.

"You don't know?" she taunted "The inscription 'I show you not your face but your heart's desire' the mirror shows you the deepest desire of your heart" and then a light bulb flicked on in her head "It's not here..." the words were less than a breath but somehow Quirrell heard them and he spun around again, having turned back to look at the inscription when Harry mentioned it.

"What?" he said.

"The perfect defence, not putting it where everyone thinks it is." she almost laughed at Dumbledore's brilliance.

"No!" Quirrell snarled "If it wasn't here then he would have no need to set up these defences, this mirror is the key, I know it!"

"Use the Girl." said a voice, this voice was also little more than a whisper, but it had a sinister quality to it and it filled Harry with dread.

"Yes, Potter come here tell me what you see." Quirrell clicked his fingers again and the ropes fell away from her.

Harry walked you to the mirror simply expecting to see her mother again. She saw her reflection, pale and scared-looking at first.

But a moment later, the reflection smiled at her. It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone. It winked and put the Stone back in its pocket — and as it did so, Harry felt something heavy drop into her real pocket. Somehow — incredibly —she'd gotten the Stone.

"Well?" said Quirrell impatiently. "What do you see?"

Harry screwed up her courage.

"My mother." her voice cracked halfway through but that just made it sound more believable.

Quirrell cursed again.

"Get out of the way," he said. As Harry moved aside, she felt the Philosopher's Stone against her leg. Dare she make a break for it? No, she had to act like nothing had happened, if he didn't know she had it he couldn't get it.

But just as she came to this brilliant conclusion the voice from before spoke up again.

"She lies... She lies..." it seemed to come from Quirrell but he wasn't moving his lips.

"Tell me the truth! What did you just see?" Quirrell shouted.

The high voice spoke again "Let me speak to her… face-to-face…"

"But Master." Quirrell argued "You are not strong enough."

"I Have strength enough for this."

Quirrell seemed to consider the words before giving in. He reached up and began to unwrap his turban. What was going on? The turban fell away. Quirrell's head looked strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot.

Harry would have screamed, but she couldn't make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake and Harry realised without being told who it was.

It was Voldemort.

"Harriet Potter…" it whispered.

Harry tried to take a step backward but her legs wouldn't move.

"See what I have become?" the face said "Mere shadow and vapour… I have form only when I can share another's body… but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds… Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks… It is hardly enough butonce I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own… Now… why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"

Crap.

So he knew. The feeling suddenly surged back into Harry's legs. She stumbled backward.

"Don't be a fool," snarled the face "Better save your own life and join me… or you'll meet the same end as your parents… They died begging me for mercy…"

Ice slipped down Harry's throat as her mind digested his words. 'No' she thought 'No it wasn't true'

"LIAR!" she shouted suddenly.

Quirrell was walking backward at him, so that Voldemort could still see him. The evil face was now smiling, he was enjoying this.

"How touching…" it hissed "I always value bravery… Yes, girl, your parents were brave… I killed your father first; and he put up a courageous fight… but your mother needn't have died… she was trying to protect you… Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."

Harriet could hardly think rage swelled inside her but she couldn't seem to direct it towards any action, she just stood there, motionless.

Quirrell's hand whipped out and grabbed her wrist and at once, a needle-sharp pain seared across Harry's scar; her head felt as though it was about to split in two; she yelled, struggling with all her might, and to her surprise, Quirrell let go of her.

The pain in her head lessened — she looked around wildly to see where Quirrell had gone, and saw him hunched in pain, looking at his fingers — they were blistering before his eyes.

"What are you doing you fool? SEIZE HER!" shrieked Voldemort again, and Quirrell lunged, knocking Harry clean off her feet landing on top of her, both hands around Harry's neck — Harry's scar was almost blinding her with pain, yet she could see Quirrell howling in agony.

Acting more on instinct than actual thought Harry pressed her hands to Quirrell's face. The pain in her head doubled but so did Quirrell's screams. Quirrell stumbled back his face puffed up so much his mouth and eyes were permanently closed.

"KILL HER! KILL HER!" Voldemort screamed.

But at that very moment the door burst open and a red spell sailed through it hitting Quirrell in the chest and he hit the floor in the same second. A strange black smoke rose from the back of his head and his body suddenly burst into flames.

Harry just stood there shocked, staring at the now charred remains of a man that had been talking to her less than five minutes ago.

Harry didn't know how long she stood there but the next thing she knew Dumbledore was standing behind her shaking her shoulder lightly.

"Are you alright my dear?" He said with a warm smile and twinkling eyes.

She nodded, she wasn't but she would be.

"Then it would appear we have quite a lot to discuss." And with that he led her out of the room.

* * *

**How will Harriet deal with this? Answers on a postcard please.**

**Danni xxx**


	8. One Year Down

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

"So, where should we begin, Harriet?" Dumbledore asked over the top of his interlocked fingers.

"I suppose we should start with Halloween, sir" Harry said coolly. She was very thankful that the walk up to the Headmaster's Office was such a long one; it had given her time to calm down from what she had seen.

"Oh?" he said looking slightly surprised, weather it was because she knew about what happened on Halloween or because of how calm she was it was impossible to tell "Well, why don't you explain the events of that day, just so we are on the same page"

That almost threw her. Why was he asking her what happened? It wasn't if he didn't know already, surely?

"Quirrell let-" She started, but he cut her off.

"Professor Quirrell, Harriet." he said calmly.

"Seriously?" She asked stunned he was still giving the monster a title.

"You must remember, Harriet, Voldemort is an expert at getting people to do what he wants them to. Quirinus was once a good man, one who lacked the strength of someone like you, but he was never evil, simply misguided."

Harry didn't agree with that however she could see that arguing would get her nowhere at this point.

"Fine then, _Professor Quirrell._" she said stressing his name to let him know she wasn't convinced but he didn't stop her so she carried on "Let a troll into the castle and purposely pointed it towards a bathroom that he thought I was occupying in an attempt to both kill me off and create a diversion so he could see what protections you had placed on the stone. You sent," she paused to shoot him a mocking smile "_Professor Snape,_" Dumbledore sighed "To head him off and make sure he couldn't make an actual run at the stone. How did I do?"

"Quite well, I do not believe you missed anything," he smiled "So what about tonight?"

"Tonight _he_ sent you a letter telling you that you were needed at the ministry, a journey that should have taken you five minutes, but he was betting that you would be running round looking for whoever sent you the message, something that would take you forever as nobody did. You struck up a loud conversation with Professor McGonagall within earshot of Ron and Neville, saying you were leaving to attend to a suspicious letter." Harry noticed his mouth twitch and knew her suspicions were true "But you never left of course" Harry took great pleasure at seeing his eyes widen slightly, his face didn't lose his calm and kind appearance but it was clear he was shocked... and impressed.

"No you had to be ready to show up at the right time and save the day," again he didn't interrupt so she carried on "Neville, Ron and I cleared our way through your pathetic tests, the worst one was, ironically, _Professor Quirrell's_ but thankfully he took care of that before we got there. When I caught up with him we had a chat and then Voldemort joined us then we fought, that is if you can call it a fight. That's when you came in and..." she waved her hand as if to imply that was where she was planning on leaving it like that, but honestly when she thought back to what happened she had trouble not throwing up "You know the rest."

"Very good Harriet," he said but he sounded a little annoyed "I thought I had covered all traces of my influence in this. It seems I was mistaken."

"Don't feel too bad, sir. It's all those murder mysteries I read." Harry said smirking.

Dumbledore chuckled "Yes, I am afraid I had to stop reading them myself. I started seeing mysteries in completely ordinary, everyday occurrences. Paranoia isn't good for the health. You see.

"Now the stone, do you still have it?" he said in a much more businesslike voice.

"Yeah," Harry said pulling it out of her pocket "Right here, what are you going to do with it?"

"Well, I think it is best if it was destroyed"

"But won't your friend Nicholas Flamel die?" Harry said suspiciously.

"You know about Nicholas? Well you did do the thing properly didn't you?" he said, sounding quite delighted "Well I will have a little chat with him and Perenelle but I think that they will agree with me."

"This isn't the real stone is it?" Harry shot at him.

"No." he shot back "But I must ask you that you do not tell anyone that the Flamels are still alive. They do not wish to participate in the coming war and if everyone believes they are dead they will not have to."

"So what? They are just going to hide?" Harry asked disgusted.

"It may seem unethical to you now, but when you have saved the lives of those that will turn their back on you at a moment's notice, as many times as the Flamels have, then you will understand"

There was a large pause in which Dumbledore seemed to be waiting for Harry to speak and Harry attempted to dissipate the new anger, which had just bubbled up within her, so she could speak without lashing out at him.

"Voldemort's going to try other ways of coming back isn't he?" she asked after a few minutes.

"Yes, he is still out there somewhere, perhaps looking for another body to share… not being truly alive, he cannot be killed. While you may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next time — and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never return to power."

"Sir, there are some other things I'd like to know, if you can tell me… things I want to know the truth about…"

"The truth" Dumbledore sighed "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. However, I shall answer your questions unless I have a very good reason not to, in which case I beg you'll forgive me. I shall not, of course, lie."

"Well… Voldemort said that he only killed my mother because she tried to stop him from killing me. But why would he want to kill me in the first place?"

Dumbledore seemed to debate on what to tell Harry before he started to speak, his speech slower than usual "There was a prophecy made not long before you were born that named a child, born on the end of July, as his downfall. The baby the prophecy spoke of was a boy, however, I do not believe that Voldemort knew it was a boy or he could have just been making sure I suppose..." he murmured as if talking to himself "Either way, he attacked you but your mother gave her life to protect you, she saved your life by sacrificing her own. That kind of love gives someone lasting, and powerful, protection, which is why Professor Quirrell couldn't touch you, while he shared a body with Voldemort."

Harry was sure Dumbledore had added the last bit so she could focus on her anger so she didn't have to cry in front of him.

"How did I get the stone out of the mirror?" Harry asked as a distraction.

"Ah, now, I'm glad you asked me that. It was one of my more brilliant ideas, and between you and me, that's saying something. You see, only one who wanted to find the Stone — find it, but not use it — would be able to get it, otherwise they'd just see themselves making gold or drinking Elixir of Life. My brain surprises even me sometimes…"

"So modest, sir." Harry said sarcastically.

"I am aren't I?" Dumbledore said with a chuckle.

"And, and the cloak?" she asked knowing she wouldn't get a full answer.

"Ah yes, your father happened to leave it in my possession, and I thought you might like it." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Useful things… your father used it mainly for sneaking off to the kitchens to steal food when he was here."

"Normal invisibility cloaks can't turn visible on command" Harry pointed out, making her cloak flash different colours to emphasize her point.

"No, the normal ones don't, do they?"

Harry sighed there was no point talking about it more as he wasn't going to tell her anything.

"And sir, there's one more thing…"

"Just the one?"

This was something that had bugged her since the first of September "Was Hagrid in on all of this or can he just not keep a secret."

Dumbledore chuckled "Hagrid has been a good friend for a long time now, however keeping secrets is not one of his strong points." Harry narrowed her eyes, he hadn't said Hagrid _wasn't_ involved "No, Harriet, really he wasn't." he paused to flash the girl a smile "Stop reading the murder mysteries, Harriet, too much paranoia is bad for you." he chuckled again "You have done a great thing here today, Harriet, I think awarding Gry..."

"No, sir, please don't do that." Harry said quickly.

"You don't want me to award you house points?" Dumbledore asked.

"No, you set all of this up and you made it so that I knew everything I needed to do this, it wouldn't be fair to give me points for something only I could do." she said logically.

"I didn't make you do anything Harriet and what you did was something you should be proud of." he said but it was clear her mind was made up "Well if that is you wish I will accept it, you are a wonderful person Harriet." Harry blushed at his complement. Dumbledore pretended not to notice and waved his hand towards the door as a dismissal.

Harry got out of her chair "Goodbye sir."

"Goodbye Harriet." he said cheerfully. But as she turned to leave he called out to her again "Oh Harriet, I didn't ask, would you like a lemon drop?" He gestured to the bowl on his desk.

Harry eyed him suspiciously but finding nothing off she reached for one and put it in her mouth. It was a good thing she wasn't looking at Dumbledore while she did so however, as when she did look at him, the look of pure joy on his face almost made her accidentally drop the sweet from her mouth.

He chuckled at her reaction but apologised immediately "I am sorry it is just, nobody has ever actually accepted one before," Harry had to laugh at that "Alastor actually tried to attack me when I offered him one once." he said looking down "Oh well, do have a pleasant night Harriet."

Harry nodded and left before he could mention something else, there was only so much of Dumbledore she could take in one sitting.

* * *

Tea with Hagrid the next day wasn't as fun as Harry thought it would be.

Having learnt that the person he took the dragon's egg from was actually trying to steal the stone, Hagrid broke down in tears and it took Harry, Susan and Hannah a full twenty minutes to calm him down enough for him to stop.

Not that Susan was much happier about the whole incident than Hagrid was, although _her_ problem was that they didn't take her with them. Even Hannah, who was considerably paler towards the end of Harry's story, said that she should have gotten them to go with her and the boys.

Predictably Hermione had the opposite reaction claiming that they should have simply gotten a teacher, she also refused to listen to Ron saying they did try that, simply brushing it aside with "You should have tried harder." Honestly Harry thought Hermione just argued with him because she liked to.

Harry made her way down to the end-of-year feast with Hannah and Susan, who she had been spending a lot of time with recently. She was trying to make up for not taking them to face Quirrell and so she had been spending a lot of time in the Hufflepuff common room. All three girls groaned when they got to the great hall as it was decked out in the Slytherin colours of green and silver to celebrate Slytherin's winning the house cup for the seventh year in a row. A huge banner showing the Slytherin serpent covered the wall behind the High Table.

Harry felt a tinge of regret flow through her and almost reconsidered asking the headmaster to give her the points but she had made her decision and she was going to stick by it.

When everyone noticed Harry splitting off from Susan and Hannah there was a sudden hush, and then everybody started talking loudly at once. Harry rolled her eyes, this had been going on since the day after 'The Incident' as Neville had taken to calling it, Harry knew this was payback over his name 'The Trollslayer'. The renewed staring was annoying but what was more so was that everybody seemed to know what happened and all of Harry's friends promised they hadn't told anyone, but the details were so accurate the information must have been leaked somehow, Harry suspected Dumbledore.

She slipped into a seat between Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table and tried to ignore the fact that people were standing up to look at her. Fortunately, Dumbledore arrived moments later. The babble died away.

"Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were… you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts…

"Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; in third, Ravenclaw with four hundred and twenty-six; Gryffindor has four hundred and sixty-two points and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."

A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table.

"Yes, Yes, well done, Slytherin," said Dumbledore "I would have taken into account the recent actions of Ronald Weasley, Neville Longbottom and Harriet Potter, unfortunately however the Hogwarts rules clearly state that house points can only be _deducted_ after the end of year tests have taken place."

The Slytherins seemingly didn't know how to take this news but the rest of the hall started clapping Harry, Ron and Neville. Ron blushed bright red, Neville took a purposely over-the-top bow and Harry simply rolled her eyes.

The feast was magnificent and even though Slytherin won, nobody seemed to care.

Harry had made friends here, real true friends, which she knew she could count on if she needed them, it was something she had never had before and it made her warm and fuzzy, and almost heartbroken to think she wouldn't see them for the next two months.

With everything Harry had almost forgotten that the exam results were still to come, but come they did. She had done very well and was very pleased, until Neville stared teasing her about her Herbology mark.

And suddenly, their wardrobes were empty, their trunks were packed, Neville's toad was found lurking in a corner of the toilets; notes were handed out to all students, warning them not to use magic over the holidays "I always hope they'll forget to give us these," said one of the Weasley twins sadly

Hagrid was there to take them down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the lake and passed her a book sized parcel wrapped in brown paper and told her to open it when she was alone.

They boarded the Hogwarts Express; talking and laughing as the countryside became greener and tidier; eating Bettie Bott's Every Flavour Beans as they sped past Muggle towns; pulling off their wizard robes and putting on jackets and coats; pulling into platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station.

It took quite a while for them all to get off the platform. A wizened old guard was up by the ticket barrier, letting them go through the gate in twos and threes so they didn't attract attention by all bursting out of a solid wall at once and alarming the Muggles.

"You must come and stay this summer," said Susan.

Harry smiled and nodded "We should all meet up at some point" she said excitedly.

People jostled them as they moved forward toward the gateway back to the Muggle world. Some of them called out:

"Bye, Harry!"

"See you, Potter!"

"Still famous," said Ron, grinning at her.

"Not where I'm going, I promise you," said Harry chuckling, thinking of Mrs Kayne.

They passed through the gateway together "There she is, Mom, there she is, look!"

Ron chuckled "It looks like my sister has a bit of hero worship for you Harry." he said.

Harry blushed as she saw a young red-haired girl pointing at her.

"Harriet Potter!" she squealed. "Look, Mom! I can see —"

"Be quiet, Ginny, and it's rude to point."

Mrs. Weasley smiled down at them.

"Busy year?" she said.

"Very," said Harry "Thanks for the fudge and the sweater, Mrs. Weasley."

"Oh, it was nothing, dear."

"Miss Potter." said a man from the side. He looked so old he could have been Dumbledore's brother "My name is Aberforth Dumbledore." and apparently he was.

"Hello... err..." Harry said, still not really knowing what to call him.

"Call me Abe everyone does." he said gruffly "I am taking you back, when you've finished your goodbyes I will be over here." he said waving his arm to a seat and then walking off in that direction.

"Bit of an odd man, Abe." said a tall Ginger man who appeared to Ron's dad "I was never sure what to make of him. I wonder who is running his bar."

"Never mind that now, Arthur." said Mrs Weasley "Have a good summer Harry and be sure to pop in for a visit wont you?"

"Sure thing Mrs Weasley" she grinned, maybe this summer wasn't going to be quite as bad as she thought.

* * *

"You know I won't tell you anything Albus yet you do this every year, I must ask, why?"

No the sorting hat never did tell Albus anything and he never expected it to it was just simply nice to have a reaction to the thoughts in his head, the sorting hat was the only person he could talk to about everything and not have to worry about secrets being leaked.

"So what, I'm an interactive journal now am I?" the hat said sarcastically "Is this all I have become?" it continued, going for the overdramatic.

"Me? Overdramatic? I am hurt Albus." Albus chuckled.

But his thoughts switched back to Harriet and his never ending quest to figure the girl out. Stopping him from giving her house points was unexpected. Really he did not see that one coming. She was much more intelligent than he had first given her credit for as well.

"Correction: you thought she would be a tool, one easily manipulated by you and she has you figured out in her first year."

He couldn't argue with that, it should have been a simple matter for him to manipulate Harry into thinking Severus was against her and it was him that wanted the stone, but Harriet saw much more than he expected her to.

It was times like these that Albus really wished Godric Gryffindor hadn't put so many safeguards on the hat so he could make it tell him what kind of person Harriet was. It wasn't like he wanted to manipulate her... not anymore anyway. No, now he simply wanted to know if she could replace him, if she could lead the next generation of people.

"I wish I could tell you who would be the best for that, Albus old friend." it sighed. A small part of Dumbledore's brain noted how ridiculous it was that objects, that don't need to breath, can sigh but he ignored it, it was the part of his brain that thought rationally and he didn't like listening to it.

"That's why this school is a mad house." Albus ignored it, it was a hat, what did it know?

The hat, in turn, ignored his jibe and refocused on Harriet "I will tell you she has a wonderful mind, I did ask her to come and have a chat with me but she never came... I wonder why."

Albus thought that was a excellent idea but didn't really know how to implement it, he supposed he could just ask her if she wanted to but that seemed too... normal, and he liked to let people think of the idea themselves, with only minimal pushing.

"You could just put her in your office unaccompanied, I am sure she would find the temptation too great if that were to happen."

Albus grinned, so Harriet could be tempted like that could she?

The hat didn't answer.

Albus chuckled and took it off. Every year he attempted to get something out of the hat and every year it let something slip, never anything major, but Albus loved to be able to beat a mind reader at a mind game. The only problem is that it then wouldn't talk to him for months afterwards.

He sighed and placed it back on the shelf. He would do as the hat suggested though, and if he asked the right questions he might be able to get Harriet to tell him what that hat thinks of her.

He shook his head clear of thoughts Harriet, he had other things to be dealing with... mainly finding another Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Knowing ahead of time that Quirinus wouldn't be teaching next year he had, discreetly, put out job application forms to everyone he could think of but nobody had applied, nobody was foolish enough.

And then there was Fawkes, who was acting _very_ strangely and didn't seem to want to explain why. He had left the day before Quirinus had gone after the stone then reappeared a week later and refused to talk about certain things.

Did he know? Did he know it would soon be time to guide Albus from this plane to the next?

Fawkes slowly turned his head and eyed Dumbledore.

That was a 'Yes' then.

"Will you return here? Or continue on yourself?" Albus asked.

The ancient firebird looked down and started to cry.

Albus sighed, that told him nothing. That was one of the problems with familiars that you didn't have with pets. They weren't yours to order around, they were merely friends that joined you on your journey, and they did as they wished, they didn't have to do anything or tell you anything.

Shaking his head again his thoughts landed on Voldemort, more specifically, the means in which he attained 'Immortality'. It frustrated him that he had not been able to find out what he had used in the course of this year, he might end up having to personally examine Harriet's scar but he didn't want to do that. He didn't want Harriet finding out about her scar for a few years yet; he would not want that burden on any twelve year-old regardless whether it was part of a magical core, or part of a soul.

And if it _was_ part of Voldemort's soul then Albus had problems, he honestly couldn't see a way of getting it out of her. He had searched through all of the books he owned that had anything to do with souls and he had found a spell to remove a piece of a soul from something without damaging it. Problem was it was for _inanimate_ objects which meant that they would have to kill Harry for it to work, which was rather counter-productive.

But he wouldn't admit defeat, he would continue searching until his last breath, he owed it to her for failing to protect her parents.

* * *

**Hopefully second year will diverge from cannon more than this one :)**

**Danni xxx**


	9. The Start of Something Old

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

Harry ran down a very long, dimly lit chamber and at the end lay an unmoving figure, the girl she had come to save.

She dropped to her knees beside pale, cold, unmoving body covered in dirt and grime.

"Don't be dead!" she pleaded "Come on, wake up!" Harry said shaking the girl but she wouldn't stir. Harry knew in her heart she was already too late and now her friend was going to die; there was nothing she could do about it.

"She won't wake."

* * *

**Harry the Heroine **

**Danni xxx**


	10. What a Difference a Day Makes

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

Harry had been quite bored this summer with no new books to read and only able to send letters to her friends when their owls were returning home, her birthday however had been full of surprises.

It had started off with the presents, Hermione had, predictably, gotten her a book: _A Teen witch's guide to makeup charms_ which was a very good read. Neville had gone the opposite was and bought her own personal training snitch, the only difference being that it could be summoned with a summoning charm. Ron had bought her a pile of sweets, and his mum had made her a large cake. Hannah had surprised her by buying her a green moleskin journal, the note explained that Harry had often complained that she lost the trail of her thoughts sometimes which, Harry had to admit, she did.

Susan had once again shocked her by getting her a miniature pet wolf, it was about three inches long and made of metal with fur outlining it. K10, as she had taken to calling it, would walk around and play with her hand but would curl up as though it was asleep if she left or went to sleep herself. Harry found it adorable and usually kept it in her pocket so it could play-wrestle her hand. She didn't really trust Hagrid's cooking so she passed over the cake he sent her but he had more than made up for it with the present that he gave to her at the end of term; it was a photo album, one specifically dedicated to her parents. That meant more to her than she could ever put into words, it gave her a connection that she honestly had never thought she would have.

But presents weren't the only thing that surprised Harry that day. Harry had received a letter from Ron, who's mother had asked her to come and stay. From the constant end notes from Mrs Weasley in Ron's letters it was clear that she didn't believe that Harry could feed herself correctly, if Ron was quoting his mother exactly rather than simply putting down approximations. Harry didn't exactly want to stay in the orphanage but there was one issue, Dumbledore and no, not that one, the other one. Aberforth had told her not to tell anyone where she lived as 'She didn't want that kind of information leaking out.' but the headmaster knew where she lived, perhaps he could get her to Ron's house.

Harry quickly wrote a letter to the old man and was about to send Ron's rather ill looking owl to Scotland before a pillar of flames sprang up next to her. Harry had to clamp her hand over her mouth to stop from screaming at the sudden appearance of what she now recognised as a phoenix.

'Of course, what other animal would Dumbledore have.' Harry thought.

She held out the letter and the firebird took it and without orders disappeared in a similar pillar of fire. Her response arrived a couple of seconds later with a large tail feather on top of it.

_Don't worry, Harriet, I will arrange everything._

_Albus Dumbledore (and various titles)._

Harry winced. He had to call her Harriet, even in response to a letter that was clearly signed 'Harry'. Harry also wondered if the part in brackets was him showing off or if he just found it amusing. Trying to keep up with the headmaster usually led to headaches however, so she stopped that line of thought.

But that was the last she heard from the wizarding world, until Hagrid almost broke down her door the following day.

"Sorry about tha.'" he said waving towards the door which now had a large knuckle shaped impression.

"Don't worry about it Hagrid, let Mrs Kayne." Harry said cheekily before they departed for the Weasley house.

"Eh - Right. Off we go then."

It was a grinning Harry and a slightly sick-looking Hagrid that arrived at the Weasley's after a short ride on the knight bus. It looked as though it had once been a large stone pigpen, but extra rooms had been added here and there until it was several stories high and so crooked it looked as though it were held up by magic, which Harry reminded herself, it probably was. Four or five chimneys were perched on top of the red roof. A lopsided sign stuck in the ground near the entrance read, THE BURROW. Around the front door lay a jumble of rubber boots and a very rusty cauldron. Several fat brown chickens were pecking their way around the yard. Harry ran up to the door and knocked enthusiastically, one of the twins answered it.

"Why if it isn't - come to stay at - we welcome you - come in, sit down." he said pausing every few words.

"Err... what?" Harry said confused as the other twin appeared beside his brother.

"Sorry about that," the first twin said.

"We didn't mean to confuse you," added the other.

"But George here kept missing his lines." finished the one Harry now assumed to be Fred.

Harry shook her head, Dumbledore was not the only person imposable to keep up with and honestly the twins were sometimes worse than him. She pushed past the grinning pair into the kitchen, leaving Hagrid, who still looked confused, behind.

"Harry!" Ron shouted from the kitchen table "I wasn't sure you were coming, you didn't write back."

"I didn't think it was a good idea to send your owl back," she replied holding up cage in her hand "It looked as though one more flight might finish it off."

"Yeah that's Errol for you." said Fred, following Harry into the kitchen.

"I tried to borrow Hermes -" Ron started, nodding.

"Who?"

"The owl Mum and Dad bought Percy when he was made prefect." said Fred.

"But Percy wouldn't lend him to me" said Ron "Said he needed him"

"Percy's been acting very oddly this summer" said George, frowning "And he has been sending a lot of letters and spending a load of time shut up in his room… I mean, there is only so many times you can polish a prefect badge…"

"Yeh not 'asslin' 'im are ya lads?" Hagrid said in what he clearly thought was a stern voice.

The twins looked far too innocent as they both said "Who? Us? Why would we do a thing like that?"

Hagrid frowned but didn't get a chance to respond as Mrs Weasley appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"Harriet, dear, I didn't know you were here, and Hagrid how are you?" she said.

"Am good, Molly, wouldn't 'appen teh 'ave a brew on the go, would yeh?" asked Hagrid, Mrs Weasley nodded.

"It's just Harry, Mrs Weasley, nobody calls me Harriet" Harry said 'Not unless they want to be hexed' she continued in her mind 'Or they are Dumbledore' she thought. Harry was of the firm belief that if he wanted to Dumbledore could get away with anything, and regularly did if her first year was anything to go by.

"Of course dear, have you had breakfast?" she asked but didn't wait for a reply and set up a place for her anyway.

Actually Harry hadn't eaten breakfast and was actually feeling quite hungry. Her eyes flicked around the room looking for a clock but when she found one instead of telling the time, it had only one hand and no numbers at all. Written around the edge were things like Time to make tea, Time to feed the chickens, and You're late. Harry let her eyes wander around the room as Mrs Weasley shovelled food onto her plate.

Books were stacked three deep on the mantelpiece, books with titles like Charm Your Own Cheese, Enchantment in Baking, and One Minute Feasts — It's Magic! Dishes were washing themselves in the sink, a whish was scrambling eggs in the same fashion. And unless Harry's ears were deceiving her, the old radio next to the sink had just announced that coming up was "Witching Hour, with the popular singing sorceress, Celestina Warbeck"

At that moment there was a diversion in the form of a small, redheaded figure in a long nightdress, who appeared in the kitchen, looked tiredly at Hagrid and Harry, then down at her clothes, gave a small squeal, and ran out again.

"Ginny" said Ron in an undertone to Harry "My sister. She's been talking about you all summer."

"Yeah, she'll be wanting your autograph, Harry." Fred said with a grin.

"As soon as she has thrown on some more respectable clothes." added George.

Sure enough, less than five minutes later Ginny re-appeared in a plain, navy robe with a quill and piece of parchment in hand. Fred gave Harry a knowing grin as she fought to keep the scowl off her face.

Harry signed the parchment, she would usually refuse but the Weasleys were always so nice to her. Harry gave Ginny a big, albeit false, smile which seemed to cheer her up, and send a flush of red across her freckled cheeks.

"Right" Mrs Weasley started, looking at George who had just finished eating "You're going to de-gnome the garden for me; they're getting completely out of hand again —"

"Oh, Mum —"

"And you two" she said, turning to Ron and Fred.

"Now, let's see what Lockhart's got to say on the subject —"

And she pulled a heavy book from the stack on the mantelpiece. George groaned.

"Mum, we know how to de-gnome a garden —"

Harry looked at the cover of Mrs. Weasley's book. Written across it in fancy gold letters were the words Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests. There was a big photograph on the front of a wizard with wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes. As always in the wizarding world, the photograph was moving; the wizard, who Harry supposed was Gilderoy Lockhart, kept winking cheekily up at them all. Mrs. Weasley beamed down at him.

"Oh, he is marvellous," she said "He knows his household pests, all right, it's a wonderful book…"

"Mum fancies him." said Fred, in a very audible whisper. Harry looked back at the picture, he was quite good looking, she supposed.

"Don't be so ridiculous, Fred," said Mrs. Weasley, but her cheeks rather pink "All right, if you think you know better than Lockhart, you can go and get on with it, and woe betide you if there's a single gnome in that garden when I come out to inspect it."

"You can go put your things in Ginny's room dear," she added to Harry "You will be staying in her room while you're here."

"Sure, give us a hand will you Hagrid?" she said giving him a smile.

"O' course, Harry." he said jumping to his feet and picking up her trunk with one of his dustbin sized hands.

It was quite a while later that they returned to the kitchen, with a star struck Ginny in tow. Hagrid was a little too big for the burrow but that wasn't much of a problem however Ginny had felt it necessary to give Harry a long tour of her room and Harry just didn't have it in her to tell the red-head that she didn't care.

"Where's Arthur, Molly?" Hagrid said looking around the room as though there would be a sign to answer his question.

"At work." Mrs. Weasley said nodding to a grandfather clock with nine golden hands, each with a face of a different Weasley. Instead of numbers, the clock had inscriptions of possible locations for each family: Home, school, work, travelling, lost, hospital, prison and where the twelve would be on a normal clock there was one saying 'mortal peril'. Mr. Weasley's was currently on 'Work'. It seemed that there was a sign pointing to where he was.

Not long after that the others piled back into the house, claiming to have finished their work. The twins disappeared off to their room and Ron offered Harry a game of chess.

"Sure, so long as I don't have to be one of the pieces again." she laughed, Ron shuddered.

"Don't remind me." he muttered.

* * *

Life at the Burrow was as different as possible from life in the orphanage.

Mrs. Kayne liked everything neat and ordered, not that she always got it mind; the Weasleys' house burst with the strange and unexpected.

Harry got a shock the first time she looked in the mirror over the kitchen mantelpiece and it shouted "Tuck your shirt in, scruffy!" The ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes whenever he felt things were getting too quiet, and small explosions from Fred and George's bedroom were considered perfectly normal.

What Harry found most unusual about life at Ron's, however, wasn't the talking mirror or the clanking ghoul: It was the fact that everybody there seemed to fuss over her. Mrs. Weasley fussed over the state of her socks and tried to force her to eat fourth helpings at every meal. Mr. Weasley liked Harry to sit next to him at the dinner table so that he could bombard her with questions about life with Muggles, asking her to explain how things like plugs and the postal service worked.

"Fascinating" he would say as Harry talked him through using a telephone "Ingenious, really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without magic"

"Honestly some things muggles have come up with are much better than their magical counterparts" Harry told him "In fact some things in the muggle world don't even have a magical counterpart. Take computers for instance, or the internet"

"What are they?" he asked, resulting in a two hour conversation about computers.

Harry heard from Hogwarts one sunny morning about a week after he had arrived at the Burrow. She and Ginny, who was explaining how the Quidditch league worked, went down to breakfast to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ron already sitting at the kitchen table.

"Letters from school," said Mr. Weasley, passing Harry, Ron and Ginny identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink. "Dumbledore already knows you're here, Harry — doesn't miss a trick, that man. You two have got them, too," he added, as Fred and George ambled in, still in their pyjamas.

For a few minutes there was silence as they all read their letters. Harry's told him to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross station on September first. There was also a list of the new books he'd need for the coming year.

SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:

The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2by Miranda Goshawk  
Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart  
Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart  
Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart  
Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart  
Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart  
Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart  
Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart

Fred, who had finished his own list, peered over at Harry's.

"You've been told to get all Lockhart's books, too!" he said "The new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher must be a fan — bet it's a witch"

At this point, Fred caught his mother's eye and quickly busied himself with the marmalade.

"That lot won't come cheap" said George, with a quick look at his parents "Lockhart's books are really expensive…"

"Well, we'll manage," said Mrs. Weasley, but she looked worried. "I expect we'll be able to pick up a lot of Ginny's things second-hand"

"Oh, are you starting at Hogwarts this year?" Harry asked Ginny.

She nodded, blushing to the roots of her flaming hair, and put her elbow in the butter dish.

Fortunately no one saw this except Harry, because just then Ron's elder brother Percy walked in. He was already dressed, his Hogwarts prefect badge pinned to his sweater vest.

"Morning, all," said Percy briskly. "Lovely day."

He sat down in the only remaining chair but leapt up again almost immediately, pulling from underneath him a moulting, gray feather duster — at least, that was what Harry thought it was, until she saw that it was breathing and realised it was Errol.

"Errol!" said Ron, taking the limp owl from Percy and extracting a letter from under its wing "Finally— he's got Neville's answer"

Harry and Ron had been trying to arrange a day when they could meet up with Neville, Hermione, Hannah and Susan in Diagon Alley. This was a lot harder to do with owl post than it would have been with a phone, owing to the fact you had to wait for each reply.

"He says he can come Thursday as well" said Ron looking up from the letter.

"Good that is everyone" Harry said "Now all we need is to do is send out another message saying that everyone can make it"

"No, Neville said he would take care of it as 'Your owl might not make it to everyone before it dies'" Ron said with a perfect imitation of Neville's voice.

He carried Errol to a perch just inside the back door and tried to stand him on it, but Errol flopped straight off again so Ron lay him on the draining board instead, muttering "Pathetic"

"Dunno how Mum and Dad are going to afford all our school stuff this year" said George while they were walking down the road to the nearby village "Five sets of Lockhart books! And Ginny needs robes and a wand and everything…"

Harry said nothing. She felt a bit awkward. Stored in an underground vault at Gringotts in London was a small fortune that her parents had left her. Of course, it was only in the wizarding world that he had money; you couldn't use Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts in Muggle shops. It was possible to exchange wizarding money to muggle currency but Harry had been advised against it as the conversion rate the goblins gave was ridiculously high.

Mrs. Weasley woke them all early the following Thursday. After a quick half a dozen bacon sandwiches each, they pulled on their coats and Mrs. Weasley took a flowerpot off the kitchen mantelpiece and peered inside.

We're running low, Arthur" she sighed "We'll have to buy some more today… Ah well, guests first! After you, Harry dear!" Ah Floo Powder. Harry had never used it but she did know the theory.

"Er... The Leaky Cauldron? Right?" Harry asked.

"Yes dear, or 'Diagon Alley' you end up at the Cauldron either way" Mrs. Weasley answered.

Nodding Harry took a pinch of glittering powder out of the flowerpot, stepped up to the fire, and threw the powder into the flames.

With a roar, the fire turned emerald green and rose above Harry's head before she stepped into them shouting "The Leaky Cauldron"

It felt as though she was being sucked down a giant drain. She seemed to be spinning very fast — the roaring in his ears was deafening — she tried to keep his eyes open but the whirl of green flames made her feel sick —something hard knocked her elbow and she tucked it in tightly, still spinning and spinning — now it felt as though cold hands were slapping her face — squinting she saw a blurred stream of fireplaces and snatched glimpses of the rooms beyond — her bacon sandwiches were churning inside her — she felt herself slowing down and she threw out her hands to catch herself.

She picked herself up off the floor and dusted herself down stepping aside so nobody would run into her. One of the twins came next, then Ron, Ginny, the other twin, Mrs. Weasley, Mr. Weasley and looking like he wanted to be elsewhere Percy.

Harry had only seen Percy at mealtimes so far; he stayed shut in his room the rest of the time and even now it seemed as though he wished to get away from his family for some reason.

As a group, Harry positioned herself in the centre in an attempt to avoid attention. Not that it was working, she stood out due to being the only one without bright red hair.

"Harry! Ron! Over here!" they heard halfway down the alley.

Harry looked up and saw Hermione Granger standing at the top of the white flight of steps to Gringotts. She ran down to meet them, her bushy brown hair flying behind her.

They walked into Gringotts with Hermione telling them, rather enthusiastically, that Gilderoy Lockhart, the author of half of their booklist, would be their new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.

"Won't that be brilliant?" she said breathlessly.

"Well he can't be worse than Quirrell, you know, unless he tries to attack us as well" said Ron.

"I think I will wait and see how good he is before I comment" said Harry, there was a complete possibility that he would turn out to be like Snape, Harry had to repress a shudder.

"But he wrote all those books" Hermione insisted.

"Yes but how good are his books? Have you read them?" Harry asked, Hermione shook her head "And besides, Snape is a brilliant potions master, but a terrible teacher"

Hermione didn't respond.

"But you're Muggles!" Harry heard Mr. Weasley exclaim delightedly "We must have a drink! What's that you've got there? Oh, you're changing Muggle money. Molly, look!" He pointed excitedly at the ten-pound notes in Mr. Granger's hand.

"Meet you back here," Ron said to Hermione as the Weasleys and Harry were led off to their underground vaults by another Gringotts goblin.

The vaults were reached by means of small, goblin-driven carts that sped along miniature train tracks through the bank's underground tunnels. Harry enjoyed the breakneck journey down to the Weasleys' vault, but felt dreadful, when it was opened. There was a very small pile of silver Sickles inside, and just one gold Galleon.

Mrs. Weasley felt right into the corners before sweeping the whole lot into her bag. Harry felt even worse when they reached her vault. She tried to block the contents from view as she hastily shoved handfuls of coins into her money bag.

Back outside on the marble steps, they all separated. Percy muttered vaguely about needing a new quill.

"Wish I knew what he was up to" said Fred, frowning "He's not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all"

"Ordinary Wizarding Levels" George explained, seeing Harry's puzzled look "Bill got twelve, too. If we're not careful, we'll have another Head Boy in the family. I don't think I could stand the shame"

Fred and George had spotted their friend from Hogwarts, Lee Jordan. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were going to a second-hand robe shop.

Mr. Weasley was insisting on taking the Grangers off to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink.

"We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks" said Mrs. Weasley, setting off with Ginny.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione strolled off along the winding, cobbled street. The bag of gold, silver, and bronze jangling cheerfully in Harry's pocket was clamouring to be spent, so she bought three large strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice creams, which they slurped happily as they wandered up the alley, examining the fascinating shop windows.

In Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, they met Fred, George, and Lee Jordan, who were stocking up on Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks, and in a tiny junk shop full of broken wands, lopsided brass scales, and old cloaks covered in potion stains they found Percy, deeply immersed in a small and deeply boring book called Prefects Who Gained Power.

"A study of Hogwarts prefects and their later careers," Ron read aloud off the back cover. "That sounds fascinating…"

"Go away," Percy snapped.

"'Course, he's very ambitious, Percy, he's got it all planned out… He wants to be Minister of Magic…" Ron told Harry and Hermione in an undertone as they left Percy to it.

In a shop Hermione had dragged them into, to buy ink and parchment, they found Susan and Hannah buying gorgeous blue-green quills.

"Hey Ches, hey Hannah" Harry greeted.

"Hey Harry" they said together.

"Don't start that, I have enough of that from the twins" she moaned.

Susan chuckled while Hannah said hello to Ron and Hermione.

They left the shop a few coins lighter, Harry having bought a golden quill with red flecks in it, Hannah had bought a turquoise one and Susan bought an emerald one, as well as the parchment and ink that everyone else had bought.

It was a joint effort between Harry and Ron to get the others to visit Quality Quidditch Supplies where not only did they find Neville, Ron gazed longingly at a full set of Chudley Cannon robes and Harry placed an order for a Nimbus Two Thousand and One, supposedly the fastest broom on the market. She asked for it to be delivered straight to Hogwarts under the care of Professor McGonagall so she wouldn't have to carry it back to the Burrow. It meant not being able to use it until she got to Hogwarts but she didn't mind too much.

They went to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, the boys grumbled but Harry and Susan insisted. Harry desperately needed underclothes and clothes to go under her robes. She was much more developed than she had been at eleven but Madam Malkin told her that she still had a lot more development ahead of her so Harry bought some magically fitting bras, which would... expand as she did.

It wasn't long after that, that they headed off to Flourish and Blotts to buy their new books.

Harry of course didn't stop with the books on her list, she absolutely loved the idea of Arithmancy and Ancient Runes so she asked one of the clerks what book he suggested for those topics. After promising, a dozen or so times, that she wouldn't attempt to actually try anything that was in the books until she had a teacher observing her, she was shown several books which she promptly bought. She picked up another book on Care of Magical Creatures and a few more on Transfiguration, Charms and Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Finally they were all ready to go home. Harry's books were shrunk so she could carry them all, Ron stopped goofing off long enough to actually buy his books , Neville was found in the Herbology section, seemingly unaware of how much time had passed, Hermione was practically dragged from the shop by her father and they all set off towards the Leaky Cauldron.

"You know I think next year I will buy an owl so I can send my mail whenever I want" said Harry.

"Why didn't you buy one today?" Susan asked.

"Well there would be no point really" Harry explained "This summer is nearly over and when I would be at Hogwarts any owl would just be stuck in the castle. So I will just wait until the start of next summer to buy one, if I need to send any letters before then, I can just use one of the school owls" then Harry remembered the last thing that she had wanted to do "Er... wait a sec will you?" she asked the group "I just want to ask Ollivander something"

She ran over to the shop and pulled the door open. The same tinkling bell rang in the depths of the shop as she stepped inside. Again as she stepped further inside the back of her neck prickled and her skin tingled.

The soft voice of Ollivander made her jump, just like last time "Good afternoon" and just like last time he seemed to appear out of nowhere "If I am not mistaken miss potter, I have already sold you a wand and I doubt that you at the stage where you could use two wands simultaneously, are you here for a replacement?"

"No" she said quickly "I just wanted to ask you something"

"Fire away"

"Well..." she pulled out the feather of Dumbledore's phoenix "I have this and I was wondering what I should do with it, you deal with phoenix feathers all the time..." she trailed off hoping that he would continue.

"May I have a look at it?" she passed it to him "This is a tail feather from Fawkes, Albus Dumbledore's familiar. How did you come by it?" he asked in a rather accusing tone.

"The headmaster sent me a letter with... Fawkes" she said testing out the name "And it appeared in a column of fire with that feather on top of it"

"Really?" he asked his eyes flicking back to the feather.

"Do you know that Fawkes gave the feathers that are in, both your wand and You-Know-Who's?" he asked still examining the feather.

"No. I didn't" she said slightly reeling off the reminder that her wand matched Voldemort's.

"I would keep this safe if I were you" he said handing back the feather "You might just need it one day"

"Why?" she asked.

"I don't know much about phoenixes , Miss Potter, but one thing I do know is that they never do anything without a reason" his eyes bore into Harry's "I don't know why you have it but I'd bet my shop there is a reason for it"

Harry nodded, not trusting herself to speak and turned for the door.

"Oh and Miss Potter. I would keep that feather a secret if I were you, I wouldn't even tell Albus" Harry was shocked by that "If it is important for him to know, he already will" again Harry simply nodded and left the shop.

Again Harry was unsure whether she liked Ollivander or not. But Harry certainly couldn't say that her visits to his shop were boring.

* * *

**Actually the feather will only come into the sequel and will only be mentioned in this fic in passing after this...**

**Danni xxx**


	11. Hogwarts Again

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

Harry had enjoyed her stay at the Weasley's but it was coming to an end, September the 1st was approaching quickly. It had been brilliant, even with having the youngest Weasley treating her like the third coming of Merlin.

She brought herself out of her musing and glanced down at her book. Due to the fact it was almost impossible to get a moment of peace in The Burrow Harry had taken to waking up a little early and grabbing some much needed reading time, none of the Weasley children were 'Morning people'.

Harry sighed and looked down again. The book that she couldn't focus on was a new murder mystery that she had bought in the muggle world before her birthday. Harry was sure she knew who was the murderer was; the author kept hinting towards Lady Martha, the victim's widow, but Lenny, the seemingly overly slow gardener, seemed much more likely to Harry

"Mmhmm." Ginny was stirring, Harry marked her place and put her book down - she wasn't going to get much more reading done with her number one fan up.

"Hey Ginny," Harry called "I am going to go and get some breakfast. Why don't you get a shower and meet me downstairs?" there, that should give her some breathing room while she ate at least.

Ginny nodded shyly, always was very star-struck in the morning. Harry, having already showered walked down the stairs towards the kitchen.

"...and what if we can't?" Mrs. Weasley whispered.

"I don't know, Molly." Mr. Weasly sounded more tired than Harry had heard in her short stay "I am worried as well, but the children will at least be fine at Hogwarts. We are just going to have to make do; this isn't the first time we have had to survive on no money."

That sent a jolt through Harry, she knew the others had told her that they would struggle but hearing the way they sounded now; hearing the fear they kept from their children...

Harry walked back up a couple of stairs and then stomped back down them and entered the kitchen noisily, talking her usual seat.

"Oh! Hello Harry." Mr. Weasley said with a smile that Harry pretended to be convinced by "I have been meaning to ask you about..."

As Harry sat there answering questions on muggle technology she racked her head for a way to give some money to the Weasleys. She knew if she just came out and gave it to them they would never accept it. She had to be sneaky about this, but like the sorting hat said, she could be 'as cunning as any in Slytherin'.

Harry was brought out of her conversation and musings by the appearance of the twins. Ron and the twins had decided that if Harry was going to be any good at Quidditch then she was going to have to practice with them. Clearly they wanted to win the cup this year.

Ron would throw apples, ones painted gold, for her to catch. The twins would also throw apples but these ones, painted black, she was supposed to dodge. The catching proved quite easy; the gold apples couldn't change direction at will. The black apples however were very difficult to dodge; the twins were very good at what they did.

Harry was beginning to think that the twins simply wanted an excuse to throw things at her - it seemed like something that would amuse them.

But that was just Harry lashing out in her own mind, she knew that the practice was helping - it was slow but she was improving. Ever if it did mean that she ended up with a couple of bruises that Mrs. Weasley insisted that she healed. But it was while she was being healed that she figured out how to pay the Weasleys, she would use the facts she was muggle raised... and the fact that they had no idea about muggles.

"Thanks Mrs. Weasley." she said brightly. The fierce woman was clearly not pleased but Harry paid her no mind, she had a letter to write.

* * *

On their last evening, Mrs. Weasley conjured up a sumptuous dinner that included all of Harry's favourite things, ending with a mouth-watering treacle pudding. Fred and George rounded off the evening with a display of Filibuster fireworks; they filled the kitchen with red and blue stars that bounced from ceiling to wall for at least half an hour. Then it was time for a last mug of hot chocolate and bed.

It took a long while to get started next morning. They were up at dawn, but somehow they still seemed to have a great deal to do.

Mrs. Weasley dashed about in a bad mood looking for spare socks and quills; people kept colliding on the stairs, half-dressed with bits of toast in their hands; and Mr. Weasley nearly broke his neck, tripping over a stray chicken as he crossed the yard carrying Ginny's trunk to the car. Harry, having being ready since the night before, just sat back watched the chaos, it was a complicated dance with no rhyme or reason.

One thing she couldn't see how eight people, six large trunks, two owls, and a rat were going to fit into one small Ford Anglia. She had reckoned, of course, without the special features that Mr. Weasley had added.

"Not a word to Molly," he whispered to Harry as he opened the trunk and showed him how it had been magically expanded so that the luggage fitted easily.

When at last they were all in the car, Mrs. Weasley glanced into the back seat, where Harry, Ron, Fred, George, and Percy were all sitting comfortably side by side, and said "Muggles do know more than we give them credit for, don't they?" Harry bit down the giggle that would have given his lie away.

She and Ginny got into the front seat, which had been stretched so that it resembled a park bench "I mean, you'd never know it was this roomy from the outside, would you?" Harry stuffed her fist in her mouth.

Mr. Weasley started up the engine and they trundled out of the yard, Harry turning back for a last look at the house. She barely had time to wonder when he'd see it again when they were back.

George had forgotten his box of Filibuster fireworks. Five minutes after that, they skidded to a halt in the yard so that Fred could run in for his broomstick. It was fortunate really that nothing else was forgotten as they reached King's Cross with only twenty-five minutes to spare. However this was early according to Fred... or George.

"Ginny, how do you tell the difference between the twins?" Harry asked.

"Oh, you can't. Just guess, they don't mind if you get it wrong." Ginny replied calmly.

'Huh,' thought Harry 'Well that simplifies things.'

"Percy first." said Mrs. Weasley, looking nervously at the clock overhead, which showed they had only fifteen minutes to disappear casually through the barrier without the muggles noticing.

Percy strode briskly forward and vanished. Mr. Weasley went next; Fred and George followed.

"I'll take Ginny and you two come right after us," Mrs. Weasley told Harry and Ron, grabbing Ginny's hand and setting off. In the blink of an eye they were gone.

"Come on Ron," Harry called stepping through the barrier. She waited until Ron had come through before following the other Weasleys who were all saying goodbye.

"Thank you for having me Mr. and Mrs. Weasley." Harry said.

"Oh it was a pleasure, Harry." Mrs. Weasley replied.

"We hope to see you again soon." her husband added.

"Right well let's go find everyone." said Ron.

Harry nodded and followed him, Ginny trailing after her. Ron shot Ginny a strange look but didn't say anything.

'I wonder what that is about.' thought Harry.

But Harry's thoughts weren't on the oddities of Ron for long as they found a compartment with Neville, Hannah and Susan in it.

"Hey guys! Where is Hermione?" Harry asked.

"Hey," said Neville "She is in a compartment with Lavender and Parvati. We didn't stay there because there are only so many giggles I can take."

Harry smiled; honestly, there was only so much of Lavender she could take as well.

"Thanks for the presents." she said.

"Yeah same here." said Neville. But he seemed to only be talking to Harry and Ron; clearly he had already thanked the others.

"Oh no," Hannah moaned having spotted Ginny "Another Ginger, they are taking over the world!"

"Too right we are!" said Susan smiling.

"Oh this is Ginny," Harry said, wondering why Ron wasn't introducing his little sister "The latest Weasley. This is Hannah and Ches."

Susan shot Harry a glare.

"My name is Susan, Harry likes her nicknames, and if she gives you one then she won't call you anything else... ever"

Harry had to resist rolling her eyes, now Ginny would want to be given a nickname from her Heroine.

"What house do you think you will be in Ginny?" Hannah asked, cutting off her remark to Susan, she always seemed to be able to tell when Harry was about to tell Susan off and she always intervened, keeping the peace as only a Hufflepuff can.

"Gryffindor," said Ginny instantly as though there was no doubt. Then again in her mind there probably wasn't "How are we sorted?" the way she asked made it seem that it wasn't really important.

"Oh no," said Neville, shaking his head.

"We can't tell you, you have to wait and see." said Susan.

Ginny pouted playfully and the rest of the carriage laughed at her.

Not long after they had set off Hermione came by to say hello and Harry thanked her for the book she had given her, she hadn't been able to do any of the spells while away from Hogwarts but planned to try them all out when they got there. After a brief, brief for Hermione anyway, discussion about what the classes were likely to contain this year, Hermione left claiming she needed to talk to Lavender about something.

"I still can't see how she puts up with that girl," Neville said "If I was me; I'd have killed her by now."

"Now, now." Harry said smirking "Don't have a go at Lavender just because you don't like her, we don't have a go at Trevor now do we?"

Neville's hand flew instinctively to his pocket "Hey! Trevor is..." he looked down at his pocket "Oh no! He has escaped again!"

"Does anyone see him" Hannah asked clearly trying to be helpful, while everyone else laughed at Trevor's latest bid for freedom.

"No," said Neville sadly "He won't be in this compartment; my life is never that fair. I'll go and get one of the higher years to summon him again; I really should learn that spell."

"Who is Trevor?" Ginny as the door shut behind Neville.

"It's his toad," said Susan who seemed to have taken a liking to the other redhead "Every now and then he makes a dash for freedom and Neville has to go and find him again."

After that the conversation turned to pets the most interesting was Susan's eagle owl, Zeus, who was currently preening his feathers in a way that clearly stated he was only doing such because the conversation going on around him wasn't worth listening to. The least interesting was Ron's rat, Scabbers, who didn't appear to do anything, other than sleep.

The rest of the train ride was mostly uneventful, Neville did come back with a frown on his face saying something about Malfoy, a Slytherin boy in their year but the conversation he had with Ron about him clearly required some knowledge of past events that Harry didn't have so she didn't join in and instead took out one of her books on Ancient Runes.

As they got off the train Hagrid could be heard calling all the first years to him so Harry nudged Ginny towards him.

"Go on Ginny," Harry said "We will see you later."

As Ginny nodded and left, the others walked up the dark road outside Hogsmade station. Here stood the hundred or so carriages that took all but the first year students up to the castle, and in front of each of them stood a horse. Well if she had had to give them a name, she supposed she would have called them horses, though there was something reptilian about them, too.

They were completely fleshless, their black coats clinging to their skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Their heads were dragonish, and their pupil-less eyes white and staring. Wings sprouted from each wither - vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats. Standing still and quiet in the gathering gloom, the creatures looked eerie and sinister.

Harry suppressed a shudder and avoided looking at them. She climbed into the carriage and sat quietly not paying attention to the others' conversation until they were out of the carriage and in the great hall.

Hannah and Susan walked off to the Hufflepuff table and Harry, Ron and Neville sat down opposite the twins.

"I hope this sorting is over quickly, I am starving."

"Now, now Ronnikins," one of the twins said, Harry wasn't sure but she thought it was George.

"You may have forgotten but our dear sister is getting sorted this year," said the other.

"And Fred and I," Harry smiled at having been right about which twin was which "Well, we aren't sure where she will end up."

"It's a toss between Slytherin and Gryffindor." Fred said, smirking slightly.

"What?" Ron half-shouted.

Harry on the other hand realised that the twins were only winding Ron up.

"He's right," said George "It really could go either way. A Weasley in Slytherin." he shook his head.

"It would be an awful shame wouldn't it Fred?" said Fred.

Wait what?

"Hold on," Harry said "You both just called each other Fred." Harry pointed out.

"Then one of us must be lying," said the one Harry had originally assumed to be George.

"Unless we are both Fred." said the other.

They looked at each other for a second before turning back to Harry.

"Then again, we could both be lying,"

"And we could both actually be George."

They both grinned at Harry who had to ignore the urge to hex them.

The doors to the Hall banged open and in walked Professor McGonagall, followed by all the first year students.

The students lined up in front of the rest of the school and looked around nervously. Harry scanned their faces as the hat sang, most were looking at the Sorting hat wonder. Harry giggled as she realised that she had probably looked exactly the same last year. Harry was brought out of her musings by the clapping that erupted around the room as the hat bowed to the four tables.

"That's not the song it sang for us." said Hermione.

"Mmh?" said Harry not really listening.

"It makes a new one every year." said the twin that Harry had decided was George.

"It must be pretty boring being a hat." said Fred in a way of explanation.

Harry looked back to the nervous first years and cheered whenever the hat shouted 'Gryffindor' but it wasn't until Ginny was called that she actually paid attention.

The redhead walked across to the stool and sat down there was a pause before...

"GRYFFINDOR." the hat boomed.

And again the Gryffindor table cheered as a smiling Ginny sat next to Ron.

The sorting over Professor McGonagall rolled up her parchment and removed the hat and the stool.

Dumbledore stood up and smiled warmly "I would welcome you all to another year at Hogwarts..." he started "But it is clear that I won't have the majority of your attention until later, so tuck in." he said with a clap, thee food appearing instantly.

Most of the students laughed and a few cheered as they turned to their plates.

"So, welcome to the lion's den Ginny." Harry said cheerfully.

"Thanks." said Ginny blushing; Harry had to wonder if she would ever get over her hero worship.

"Trying the hat on is much easier than wrestling a troll though, eh?" asked Neville grinning.

Ginny's eyes flicked to Fred and George "I didn't believe them when they said that anyway, I mean who is stupid enough to believe that." she said clearly not noticing Ron's ears burning red.

Harry giggled and Neville and the twins soon joined in.

"You did?" Ginny asked Ron, finally catching on "You should know by now never to take anything Fred or George say at face value."

The others laughed as Ron blushed deeper and Ginny continued to berate him.

Not long after Harry finished her treacle tart... both of them... the plates cleared and Dumbledore stood up. Once again Harry was impressed with the fact he could silence everyone with that simple act.

"Welcome," he said, the humour evident in his voice "To another year at Hogwarts, I have been asked by our caretaker Mr. Filch to once again remind you that no magic is to be performed in the corridors between classes. The forbidden forest is still... well... forbidden as is the village of Hogsmade to first and second years.

"As is tradition, we have a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Gilderoy Lockhart" the handsome man with wavy hair and immaculate dress sense, waved at the students "I hope that you will join me in welcoming him and wishing him luck for the year that he is with us."

"Eh... Headmaster... the contract did say two years." Professor Lockhart said, his voice smooth and inviting, Harry disliked him already.

"Ah yes," said Dumbledore "That _is_ what the contract said, isn't it?" he pause to clear his throat and several of the higher years laughed.

Harry looked to the twins.

"No DADA teacher has been able to hold the position for more than a year," said George.

"And the shortest so far has been twenty years back," added Fred.

"Poor woman only lasted two weeks before she had a mental breakdown,"

"Nobody said teaching is easy."

The Headmaster dismissed them for the night and slowly the four houses left for their respective dormitories.

Harry was telling Ginny a couple of things about Hogwarts and was walking with the other first year Gryffindors as a result.

"And what about the teachers?" said very small excited boy with mousey hair.

Harry blinked having not realised that the others had been listening into her conversation.

"Well there is Snape, the Potions master, he generally dislikes all of Gryffindor so he may ask you difficult questions and stand over you menacingly while you make your potions. Just do your best in his class and ignore him whenever he says anything mean or tries to intimidate you.

"There is Professor McGonagall, our head of house and Transfiguration teacher, don't mess around in her class; she is serious when she says that if you do she will throw you out. Transfiguration can be dangerous if done wrong.

"There is Professor Flitwick, he is the short one and he teaches charms, he is really energetic and nice, don't worry about going to him for help, even if it has nothing to do with charms, he will help you out if he can.

"Then there is Professor Sprout, she teaches Herbology and is much the same as Professor Flitwick. Professor Binns is a ghost and he teaches History of Magic, there is no point in trying to listen to him as you won't learn anything just read from the textbook in his class and make notes of that, he won't notice.

"Professor Sinistra is a bit...ditsy but is a very good teacher, she teaches Astronomy. Professor Lockhart, I don't know but he will only be here for a year anyway. And then there is Madame Hooch who will be your flying teacher she is cool... and has awesome eyes..." Harry shook her head clear "There are others but you will only be taught by them in third year and so I don't really know anything about them."

"So should we have read through all our books? Because a boy on the train said he had memorised them all" said a girl with ridiculously blue eyes.

"Erm... no, it's not necessary but I would read through and try to memorise everything you can before your first potions lesson." said Harry "And if you have any troubles with potions don't try and ask Snape, get one of the older student to help you out."

All the first years nodded while taking in this information and the group mostly fell silent. Before long the new fifth year prefects, who had stayed out of the conversation as they guided the rest up to the common room announced that they had reached their destination.

"The password changes every two weeks," the girl said "So for another two weeks the password will be 'Wattlebird'." she said turning towards the portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress.

"Correct." the fat lady said and the portrait swung open.

"This will be your home for..."

Harry stopped listening to the prefects' speech and looked round the room grinning... The Burrow may be a nice place and the orphanage may be the place she had grown up in but... but this was her home.

"Hey there you are. Where did you go when we all came up? You just sort of vanished." said Neville from behind her.

"Oh I was explaining Hogwarts to the first years." she said waving her hand towards the small group of people, now being shown the dormitories.

"Ah, working your fan base I see," said Neville laughing; Harry threw him an evil glare "Anyway, I am really tired, I am going to go to bed. See you tomorrow."

Harry nodded to him and began to climb up to bed as well.

She opened the door to her room to a chorus of "Hey Harry!" all of the other girls had already got changed and were getting ready for bed.

"Hey guys, everyone have a good holiday?" that got a nod or a 'Yes' from everyone "Good." she said thinking about her own holiday and how it would have been so much worse had she not gone to the burrow. She had a lot to thank the Weasleys for and she hoped that that she could somehow repay them, not with money, for that meant nothing to her. No she would have to think of something really nice to get them for Christmas.

* * *

Arthur was driving home with his wife beside him, both were silent for they simply had too much to think about to talk. Or rather, too little to think about; the next few weeks were going to be very tough on the married couple. Arthur was simply thankful that the children wouldn't suffer in Hogwarts and he knew his wife felt the same but he still couldn't ignore the fact that until his next monthly payment they were going to have very little money to work with.

He sighed as he smoothly parked the car in his garage, he went to go and get changed for work, he had only take the morning off to drop the kids at the station, he simply couldn't afford to take the whole day off.

Just as he finished getting changed he heard Molly calling him down the stairs in a rather shocked voice. As he entered the kitchen Molly showed him a large bag of gold coins.

"Where did that come from?" Arthur asked shocked, Molly simply handed a piece of parchment to him and gestured for him to read.

_Dear Mr. and Mrs. Weasley,_

_I have greatly enjoyed my stay in your wonderful home; I have however become aware that I forgot to pay rent to you. This sort of thing does not happen in the wizarding world very often so you may not be aware of it but when you stay in another person's home, payment must be given to the home owner, I am sure that nobody stays and eats at the Leaky Cauldron for free!_

_Unaware of how much an acceptable amount of money is, I have provided a bag with twenty galleons in it and if this is not enough please feel free to owl me and I will send more. If on the other hand I have overpaid please keep the rest as I will no doubt visit your lovely home again if only to eat Mrs. Weasley's wonderful cooking._

_With you in my heart,  
Harriet Lilly Potter_

Arthur had to read the letter several times before the message truly sunk in... Twenty galleons...

"Arthur is this true? Muggles pay to stay in other peoples' houses?"

"Yes, only I believe they call them hotels in the muggle world" he said, he remembered that from his NEWT Muggle Studies class.

"Still twenty galleons is far too much, surely?" Molly asked with an almost hopeful voice.

"She did say she would come again Molly, we will just make sure to take off the money, she has overspent this time, then.

She was clearly unsure about it but Arthur knew that they needed this money and honestly he counted his lucky stars it came when it did.

* * *

The following morning Harry rolled out of bed and stumbled across to the living room, she had barely got any sleep due to the fact she was so excited about being back at Hogwarts but she hated getting showered and changed at the same time as the other girls so got up at the same time as she usually did.

Harry liked to have a nice relaxing shower with nothing to bother her, however the other girls preferred to chat and gossip and it irritated her. So she got up way before everyone else so she could get ready alone.

It meant walking down to breakfast alone but she didn't really mind that, she found it peaceful. As she walked into the great hall she noticed something she had never seen before, another student, another _Gryffindor_ student already eating breakfast.

Sure there were always a couple of teachers and there was occasionally a higher year Ravenclaw or two but usually only near exam time. She went over to him and sat opposite him. His eyes sprang open at the noise; clearly he was struggling to stay awake.

"Potter." he said as soon as his eyes focused on her.

"Hello Wood." she greeted the sixth year. Oliver wood was well known in Gryffindor owing to being the Quidditch team captain "Why are you down here so early."

"I was waiting for you." he said quickly; no trace of sleep left in his voice "I want you to try out for the Quidditch team."

"Lucky I want me to try out for the Quidditch team as well then, isn't it?" Harry smiled, "You still need a seeker right?"

"Yes, tryouts are at eight on Saturday, it's a full team tryout so don't be late."

"Sure I will probably be there early to try out my new broom." Harry said in between bites of sausage.

"New broom?" Oliver asked with interest.

"Yeah the new Nimbus."

Oliver grinned, "Excellent, I have heard you are good so don't let me down alright?"

"I'll try."

Before long Oliver started to drift back off to sleep so, when she was finished with her breakfast, she pulled out a book on Care Of Magical Creatures. At the end of this year Harry would have to choose the classes she would take for the next three years.

Muggle Studies was pointless as she had grown up with muggles.

Divination seemed pointless to those who didn't have 'The Sight' which she didn't, there was a test that she had taken with and gotten a negative result.

That left Care Of Magical Creatures, which seemed like a really fun class, Arithmancy, which was considered hard due to the maths used but the maths was no harder than maths in muggle primary schools, and The Study Of Ancient Runes, which just from reading the books Harry knew was going to be her favourite class.

Students weren't allowed to take less than two classes but fitting in more than three was usually difficult and the professors advised against it. But Harry had her three and she was going to read ahead as much as she could, just like with DADA, Transfiguration and Potions.

"Hey Harry," it was Hermione and looking round Harry realised that the Great Hall had filled with students without her notice "What are you reading." Harry lifted her book up so that Hermione could read the cover.

"I am reading ahead for next year, Care Of Magical Creatures looks fun." Harry said.

"It is good to see that you are taking your options seriously Miss. Potter." Professor McGonagall said "Here is your timetable and yours Miss. Granger." she continued, handing them both slips of parchment and then moved off towards the rest of the students.

"Right well, double Herbology first thing." said Hermione, ignoring Harry's groan "Come on or we are going to be late."

'At least we still have it with the Hufflepuffs.' thought Harry, Herbology was the one subject she actually hated but it was the one subject that she shared with Hannah and Susan which made up for the fact she had to sit for an hour and a half sorting through mud and dragon dung... at least it did sometimes.

"Greenhouse three today, chaps!" said Professor Sprout as they drew near.

There was a murmur of interest. They had only ever worked in greenhouse one before — greenhouse three housed far more interesting and dangerous plants. Professor Sprout took a large key from her belt and unlocked the door. Harry caught a whiff of damp earth and fertilizer mingling with the heavy perfume of some giant, umbrella-sized flowers dangling from the ceiling.

"We'll be re-potting Mandrakes today. Now, who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?"

To nobody's surprise, Hermione's hand was first into the air.

"Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative," said Hermione, sounding as usual as though she had swallowed the textbook, "It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state."

"Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor" said Professor Sprout "The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. It is also, however, dangerous. Who can tell me why?"

Again Hermione's hand was the first, and only, in the air.

"The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it." she said promptly.

"Precisely. Take another ten points." said Professor Sprout, "Now, the Mandrakes we have here are still very young."

She pointed to a row of deep trays as she spoke, and everyone shuffled forward for a better look. A hundred or so tufty little plants, purplish-green in colour, were growing there in rows. They looked quite unremarkable to Harry, who didn't have the slightest idea what Hermione meant by the "cry" of the Mandrake.

"Everyone, take a pair of earmuffs." said Professor Sprout.

There was a scramble as everyone tried to seize a pair that wasn't pink and fluffy.

"When I tell you to put them on, make sure your ears are completely covered," said Professor Sprout "When it is safe to remove them, I will give you the thumbs-up. Alright, earmuffs on."

Harry snapped the earmuffs over her ears. They shut out sound completely. Professor Sprout put the pink, fluffy pair over her own ears; Harry winced slightly as they clashed with her green robes, rolled up the sleeves her, grasped one of the tufty plants firmly, and pulled hard.

Harry let out a gasp of surprise that no one could hear.

Instead of roots, a small, muddy, and extremely ugly baby popped out of the earth. The leaves were growing right out of his head. He had pale green, mottled skin, and was clearly bawling at the top of his lungs.

Professor Sprout took a large plant pot from under the table and plunged the Mandrake into it, burying him in dark, damp compost until only the tufted leaves were visible. Professor Sprout dusted off her hands, gave them all the thumbs-up, and removed her own earmuffs.

"As our Mandrakes are only seedlings, their cries won't kill yet." she said calmly as though she hadn't pulled a baby from one pot and placed it into another "However, they will knock you out for several hours, and as I'm sure none of you want to miss your first day back, make sure your earmuffs are securely in place while you work. I will attract your attention when it is time to pack up.

"Four to a tray — there is a large supply of pots here — compost in the sacks over there — and be careful of the Venomous Tentacula, it's teething."

She gave a sharp slap to a spiky, dark red plant as she spoke, making it draw in the long feelers that had been inching sneakily over her shoulder.

As usual Harry partnered up with Neville, Susan and Hannah but the earmuffs made talking impossible therefore Harry was very Happy when they were told they could leave.

Harry dashed upstairs for a quick shower and therefore only just made it back in time for Transfiguration, transfiguring her beetle into a button was difficult but that was simply because the damn thing wouldn't stay still.

Lunch was a subdued event for Harry as she didn't really have the energy to waste on such things as looking alive. She did perk up at one point when she heard Ron ask quite loudly.

"Why, have you outlined all of Lockhart's lessons in little hearts?"

Hermione blushed furiously and snatched back her timetable.

"Don't Ron," Harry said, causing Hermione to look up clearly thinking Harry was coming to her rescue "He writes books! As if Hermione _wouldn't_ fancy him." Hermione blushed deeper and hid her face from her laughing friends.

Laughing, however, was not something that Harry would be doing after Lockhart's lesson.

When the whole class was seated, Lockhart cleared his throat loudly and silence fell. He reached forward, picked up Neville's copy of Travels with Trolls, and held it up to show his own, winking portrait on the front.

"Me," he said, pointing at it and winking as well, Harry rolled her eyes but most of the other girls sighed "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award — but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"

He waited for them to laugh; a few people smiled weakly.

"I see you've all bought a complete set of my books — well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about — just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in —"

When he had handed out the test papers he returned to the front of the class and said "You have thirty minutes — start — now!"

Harry looked down at her paper and read:

1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour?

2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?

3. What, in your opinion, is Gilderoy Lockhart's greatest achievement to date?

On and on it went, over three sides of paper, right down to:

54. When is Gilderoy Lockhart's birthday, and what would his ideal gift be?

'He cannot be serious,' thought Harry 'How is any of this Defence Against the Dark Arts?'

Half an hour later, Lockhart collected the papers and rifled through them in front of the class.

"Tut, tut — hardly any of you remembered that my favourite colour is lilac. I say so in Year with the Yeti. And a few of you need to read Wanderings with Werewolves more carefully — I clearly state in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony be tween all magic and non-magic peoples — though I wouldn't say no to a large bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky!"

He gave them another roguish wink. Ron was now staring at Lockhart with an expression of disbelief on his face; Seamus Finni gan and Dean Thomas, who were sitting in front, were shaking with silent laughter. Hermione, Lavender and Parvati, on the other hand, were listening to Lockhart with rapt attention and Hermione gave a start when he mentioned her name.

"… but Miss Hermione Granger knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care po tions — good girl! In fact" — he flipped her paper over — "full marks! Where is Miss Hermione Granger?"

Hermione raised a trembling hand.

"Excellent!" beamed Lockhart "Quite excellent! Take ten points for Gryffindor! And so — to business —"

He bent down behind his desk and lifted a large, covered cage onto it.

"Now — be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizard-kind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm."

In spite of herself, Harry leaned around his pile of books for a better look at the cage. Lockhart placed a hand on the cover. Dean and Seamus had stopped laughing now.

"I must ask you not to scream," said Lockhart in a low voice "It might provoke them."

As the whole class held its breath, Lockhart whipped off the cover.

"Yes," he said dramatically "Freshly caught Cornish pixies."

Harry giggled and Shamus let out a snort of laughter that even Lockhart couldn't mistake for a scream of terror.

"Yes?" He smiled at Seamus.

"Well, they're not — they're not very — dangerous, are they?" Seamus choked.

"Don't be so sure!" said Lockhart, waggling a finger annoyingly at Seamus "Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!"

The pixies were electric blue and about eight inches high, with pointed faces and voices so shrill it was like listening to a lot of budgies arguing. The moment the cover had been removed, they had started jabbering and rocketing around, rattling the bars and making bizarre faces at the people nearest them. Harry stared at Lockhart as he reached towards the cage again.

'No, he wouldn't, nobody is that stupid.' she thought but his hand closed on the latch anyway.

"Right, then," Lockhart said loudly "Let's see what you make of them!" and he opened the cage.

Pandemonium, that was probably the best word to describe what happened. The pixies grabbed ink bottles and sprayed the class with them, shredded books and pa pers, tore pictures from the walls, up-ended the waste basket, grabbed bags and books and threw them out of the smashed win dow; within minutes, half the class was sheltering under desks and the rest were trying to battle them by hitting them with books or else simply trying to dodge the things they were throwing.

Lockhart was no help either "Come on now — round them up, round them up, they're only pixies" he shouted before deciding to enter the fry himself, but his spell "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!" had only one affect... the pixies realised he was there and promptly stole his wand and threw it out the window.

Harry screwed up her courage and jumped out from behind her cover "Impedimenta!" she screamed catching four of the ten still left in the room. Hermione joined her in firing off curses and between the two of them they had immobilised all the pixies remaining.

"Yeh," Harry said casually to Hermione but in the silence of the room everybody heard it "He's a brilliant DADA teacher." the sarcasm dripping from her voice "Still at least he is so incompetent I won't have to worry about him attacking me this year."

Nobody spoke or moved but the bell rang after a few seconds so Harry packed her bag and left the room, with everyone staring after her.

But she didn't care, she was too tired to care, and she walked through the common room, not even hearing the people calling her name and flopped into bed fully dressed and on top of her covers.

Harry slept straight through till morning.

* * *

**Unlike cannon, no Colin in this chapter but he will make an entrance in the next chapter.**

**Danni xxx**


	12. Just a Normal Year

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

'Thestral.' thought Harry.

She was reading a book,_ Why Dragons Are Dangerous by William Eld_; it was a funny, yet informative, book on all types of dangerous magical beings. The book described Thestrals as 'Fleshless, black coated winged Horses, known to have descended from an unnamed and now extinct species of dragon.' it went on to explain that the reason they were considered dangerous by the ministry was because they were meat eaters and although they were usually scavengers they could easily kill most wizards, for the simple reason that most wizards couldn't see them.

Apparently to see them you had to understand death. Which meant you had to not only had to know what it means to die, you had to actually watch someone die as well. Thoughts of Quirrell came unbidden to the front of her mind, they were never very far away but she usually ignored them as reliving them made her feel ill.

She slammed the book closed and walked up to her dormitory. It was about time she went down to the Quidditch pitch, now, anyway. It was Saturday and at least twice a day, Oliver had come to her and mentioned that she had to be down at the pitch by eight to try out for the Quidditch team, true it was only ten past seven but she wanted some more practice on her new broom, having only been on it the once during the week.

Harry put on a long sleeved white t-shirt and a pair of deep red jeans and matching trainers. The jeans were supposed to be very tight but Harry altered them slightly by magic making them just loose enough for her to move around easily. After that she threw on her cloak, which she turned the same red as her jeans and trainers.

As she walked past the great hall she noticed a few of the Gryffindors eating, clearly they were also going to try out, Harry had never seen another Gryffindor up this early on a Saturday before, she always ate breakfast alone on weekends. Harry however hadn't eaten, she didn't think she could handle it, she was so nervous.

The pitch was deserted when she got to it and she swung her leg over her broom and kicked off hard. Harry closed her eyes and sighed, she loved that feeling. Homework was the least of her worries while on her broom, Thestrals couldn't worry her with the wind in her face, not even thoughts of Quirrell could reach her while she was flying.

Completely lost in her excitement she didn't notice that half an hour had gone by until Oliver called her down at a quarter to eight.

"Oi, Potter! Get down here!"

She landed as softly as possible next to an impressed looking Oliver.

"Nice moves." he commented.

Harry blushed lightly.

"I practiced over the summer." Harry mumbled.

"Good we need a decent seeker." Oliver said "We actually have a few good beaters, keepers and chasers in Gryffindor but we certainly missed Charlie Weasley last year, McLaggen was utter crap." he paused and added "You do know the rules of Quidditch don't you?"

"Yes, wait no," Oliver's head spun round instantly, "No," she said quickly understanding his panic "I know the rules I just wanted to ask why you didn't substitute someone for Alicia last year against Ravenclaw." during the last match of the season last year an expertly placed bludger had injured Alicia Spinnet a, then, third year chaser. Gryffindor, missing a chaser and basically missing a seeker, lost the game by two-hundred-and-thirty points. Ravenclaw won the cup.

"Huh," said Oliver rubbing his neck "Substitute?"

"It's what the muggles call it in their sports." said Harry rolling her eyes at how ignorant wizards were of the muggle world "Taking one player off and putting another one on. It's not against the rules; professional teams do it all the time."

"We only have three chasers, professional teams have fourteen players." Oliver pointed out.

"Why don't have fourteen people then?" Harry asked "We can swap players if they get tired and it will be easier to train if we have someone to train against."

Oliver looked thoughtful "Did you think of this?"

"No I didn't, Lilith Moon, a girl in my year, did. She asked me to ask you, she's a bit shy so she wouldn't say but she thinks you're a bit rubbish at managing a Quidditch team."

Oliver looked shocked "This... Lilith?" Harry nodded "Is she coming to try out?"

"No, she can't play to save her life, but she did mention coming down to watch."

"Right... well... point her out to me when she gets here then." Oliver said looking towards the castle and seeing a long line of Quidditch hopefuls.

After everyone had settled Oliver started his speech "Thank you all for coming." he said in a voice that sounded much more professional than the one he used speaking to Harry before "Like I said on the poster I placed on the notice board, this will be a full tryout. And what I mean by that is there is no safe positions, not even mine," there were a few mumbles about that but Oliver ploughed on "This is because this year we will be having fourteen members on our team," there was even more talking this time but again it stopped when it was clear Oliver wasn't going to be deterred "This is so practices will be easier and if any injuries occur on or off the pitch we can still play effectively. So I want seekers over here, chasers over..."

After what seemed hours of Oliver shouting seemingly random orders at the rest of the Gryffindors, he sent them all away with the promise that his final list will be posted on the notice board by Monday at the latest.

On the way back Harry pointed out Lilith to Oliver who instantly went into a long discussion on all things Quidditch. Harry stopped listening, she liked playing and she loved just flying but she would never feel the need to discuss moves and players in the depth that they were.

Harry split off from the two with a mumbled excuse, not that Harry thought they heard or noticed her missing, to go and visit Hagrid. She had some questions she wanted to ask.

"Heya Hagrid!" she greeted when the large man opened the door to his hut while attempting to drag fang back into the room.

"Just you today, is it?" Hagrid asked.

"Yep," she said calmly "I came down to Try out for the Quidditch team and thought I'd visit you on the way back, the others are still probably only just getting up."

"Practices are a bit early aren't they?" he said looking at a small clock by his kettle "Wanna brew?"

"Yes, please." Harry had gotten hooked on tea last year as teapots full of it were served with breakfast, the other first years had thought she was weird but Harry loved the stuff "And I think Oliver just wanted to see who would be dedicated enough, if people won't get up for eight to try out then they won't get up for early practices either will they?"

"Suppose," he grunted and then his face split into a smile behind his bushy beard "Professor Lockhart came to see me this morning as well." he said in a tauntingly "Givin' me advice on gettin' kelpies out of a well, like I don' know. An' bangin' on about some banshee he banished. If one word of it was true, I'll eat my kettle." it was unlike Hagrid to criticize a Hogwarts teacher, other than Professor Binns, clearly Hagrid disliked the man "That's not all he was saying either," he continued picking his amused tone backup "Said something about you disrupting his class and calling him incompetent?" it was a statement but was said in a questioning manner, he clearly wanted details.

"Oh don't start," Harry said "I have a meeting with Dumbledore today and I think that's what he wants to talk about." Harry had received a note the day after her DADA class from Fawkes, he hadn't wanted her to reply but he had hung out with her as she read by the lake before the start of classes.

Hagrid chuckled and let the matter drop, for which Harry was grateful, having to explain herself the once was going to be difficult.

"Oh, I wanted to ask you, how do the carriages pull themselves? I asked Professor Flitwick thinking it was a charm he had done but he had no idea, I thought you would be the next person to ask being gamekeeper." Harry wanted to appear as if she hadn't seen the horses, she wasn't too sure how many people knew about her seeing Quirrell die and if she was right about the horses being thestrals then she didn't want to broadcast the fact she could see them.

It appeared Harry had made the correct choice after all as Hagrid didn't seem to know. He puffed out his chest "They're thestrals, winged 'orses. But ya can on'y see 'em if ya 'ave seen death; watched someone die that means."

Harry pretended to looked shocked which got her a sympathetic nod from Hagrid.

"I 'ave probab'y the on'y trained pack in all of Brittan, the ministry doesn't like 'em so they send people out teh kill the wild ones."

Harry left soon after that, she was now hungry and Hagrid's rants against the ministry were usually very long.

When she got about halfway to the she spun around, she had a very strong feeling she was being watched, but not seeing anyone she shook herself and continued walking, even if she did start walking faster.

After a quick lunch she slowly made her way to Professor McGonagall's office as Harry hadn't been paying attention to the route at the end of last year so she had asked her head of house to walk her up the headmaster's office... McGonagall had to be there anyway.

"Very well, Miss. Potter, follow me." she said.

And with that she strode down the hallway. After about five minutes of walking they stopped before a large and extremely ugly stone gargoyle.

"Sherbet lemon!" she said. This was evidently a password, because the gargoyle sprang suddenly to life and hopped aside as the wall behind him split in two. Even full of dread for what was coming, Harry couldn't fail to be amazed. Behind the wall was a spiral staircase that was moving smoothly upward, like an escalator. As she and Professor McGonagall stepped onto it, Harry heard the wall thud closed behind them. They rose upward in circles, higher and higher, until at last, slightly dizzy, Harry saw a gleaming oak door ahead, with a brass knocker in the shape of a griffin.

They stepped off the stone staircase at the top, and stepped towards the door.

"Come in Minerva." Dumbledore's voice rang from inside the room.

They walked in and Harry had to concentrate on stopping her jaw from hitting the floor. It was a large and beautiful circular room, which was strange as the old man certainly couldn't dress himself properly, it was also full of funny little noises but this however was to be expected, it was Dumbledore's room after all. A number of curious silver instruments stood on spindle-legged tables, whirring and emitting little puffs of smoke. The walls were covered with portraits of old headmasters and headmistresses, all of whom were looking down on the room with interest. There was also an enormous, claw-footed desk, and, sitting on a shelf behind it, a shabby, tattered wizard's hat — the Sorting Hat.

Sitting between the desk and the hat, sat on a beautiful winged chair, was Dumbledore and stood next to the table was Lockhart. It seemed that Dumbledore noticed her checking out his office and he raised his eyebrows in amusement.

"Like it?" he asked.

"Yes, I wasn't aware you had a sense of style sir." pointedly looking at his blue robes that had yellow stars which flew over it periodically.

Dumbledore chuckled "I didn't design this room Harriet," Harry almost cringed "Actually I don't believe it has been changed since it was Godric Gryffindor's office."

"Would it hurt you to call me Harry?" Dumbledore just chuckled.

McGonagall had been waiting silently for Dumbledore to get to the matter at hand, clearly she had been in this situation before, but Lockhart cleared his throat.

'How dare he?' Harry fumed inside of her head 'What right does he have to interrupt Dumbledore, even if it is inane babble.' Harry often thought of him with snide terms like 'Old mad' or 'Crackpot' but the respect was always there. Even if it sometimes seemed Dumbledore had lost the plot the man deserved respect and Harry would never show him the disrespect that Lockhart just had.

"Ah yes," Dumbledore said drowning out the small hiss McGonagall made; to everyone but Harry that is, clearly McGonagall thought he had overstepped a line as well "Perhaps you would like to go first Gilderoy."

"Thank you, Albus," he started dismissively, McGonagall hissed again "I stared my class with a simple test to see where everyone was up to…" but that was as far as he got before Harry cut him off. Had he not been so disrespectful of the headmaster she would have just apologized and took her punishment but now she was pissed off.

"Yes all of them were questions on his personal life, the best one I think was 'Question Thirty-Six: What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite shampoo'." McGonagall snorted and Lockhart was about to retort but Dumbledore held up his hand.

"Please wait for your turn, Harriet." he said the customary twinkle absent from his eyes.

"As I was saying," Lockhart shot a glare to Harry "I gave them a test and then started teaching them about pixies, then I tested them to find out how they would do against a swarm of pixies and at the end of that Harry called me incompetent." he finished with a smile clearly believing he had won the argument due to Dumbledore response to her interruption.

"Do you agree with that summary Harriet?" Dumbledore asked.

"No sir." Harry said through clenched teeth, her anger at him calling her Harriet didn't even measure against the hatred she felt towards Lockhart after what he said.

"Then by all means, explain your side." he said still using a tone most unlike the grandfatherly voice Harry was used to.

"After his ridiculous test he pulled out a cage full of Cornish pixies the set them loose in the classroom, no instruction, no suggested spell, just 'let's see what you make of them'." she finished in a poor imitation of his voice but everyone understood anyway "Then while the pixies are having fun destroying the classroom he comes out with a spell 'Peskipiksi Pesternomi' I mean come on 'Pesky-pixie-pester-no-me' that's not even Latin." McGonagall snorted again "Anyway that makes the pixies realise he is there, they take his wand and throw it out a window. Then I called him incompetent."

McGonagall mouth twitched in amusement, Dumbledore was passive and Lockhart looked furious clearly this wasn't going as planned.

"Then the answer is clear, Harriet you will serve a week's detention with Professor McGonagall and Gilderoy," Dumbledore said turning to Lockhart "I would advise against bringing in creatures in future"

Harry steeled herself but she had to say this, she couldn't just leave it "With respect sir, I won't do a detention for speaking the truth"

Dumbledore fell silent but the sparkle was back in his eyes.

"It is not true!" said Lockhart loudly.

"Alright" she said turning to him "If you can answer a simple question on werewolves I will do the detentions. Sound fair?" he nodded "Name five differences between a werewolf and a true wolf." that was the first thing Why Dragons Are Dangerous had mentioned about werewolves.

Lockhart stayed silent.

"Excellent!" Harry said "So he has either being lying... or all those wolves in the books you made us all buy," Harry glared at Dumbledore, having to buy five sets of Lockhart's books had been hard on the Weasleys "Were just normal wolves."

Lockhart sneered at her and left the room.

"Seeing as I am no longer needed here." McGonagall said nodding and then she too left the room.

Neither Dumbledore nor Harry said anything for at least five minutes while Dumbledore was clearly organising his thoughts.

"What would you have me do Harriet?" he asked eventually.

"Other than calling me Harry instead of Harriet, I would have you refund parents for every Lockhart book they had to pay for, sack Lockhart and hire a Defence teacher who actually knows defence."

"I am afraid it's not that simple, he was the only person I could persuade to take the job in the first place... refunding parents with a letter of apology however... that I could do." beautiful music played from behind Harry and she spun around. Next to the door, standing on a golden perch and singing stood Fawkes.

"Hello Fawkes." Harry greeted.

"You know his name?" Dumbledore sounded surprised.

"Yeah, Ollivander told me." Harry said stroking Fawkes' head, his warm feathers felt like silk.

"I don't remember him saying that... unless you went back into his shop last summer?"

"Yeah, I did. He also said that my wand has a tail feather from Fawkes... and so does Voldemort." Harry looked directly into the phoenix's eyes trying to tell him that she didn't blame him for the things Voldemort did, that it wasn't his fault. Fawkes chirruped quietly. She paused wondering if he would bring up the other feather but he didn't.

"If that's all, Headmaster, I would like to go and find Hannah and Ches, I haven't really had much of a chance to talk to them recently." Harry said calmly. Dumbledore raised his hand towards the door "Goodbye Headmaster, goodbye Fawkes." she gave him a final stroke and left the office in search of her Hufflepuff friends.

An hour later she was in the Hufflepuff common room and was, once again, defending herself for calling Lockhart incompetent.

"...and the headmaster is going to refund everyone the money they spent on his books"

"Why would he do that?" a fifth year asked.

"Because, they are full of nonsense!" Harry shouted and seeing she was going to argue that fact she continued "Does anyone have a copy of Wanderings with Werewolves?" someone passed her a book and she flicked through the pages "Here! He is cornered by a werewolf in a telephone box and yet he is a pureblood so had no reason to be in a telephone box anyway..." most people looked thoughtful at this "And then it says here 'I pounced on him and slammed him to the floor' even though no man could ever do that to a werewolf. Oh and this bit is better 'with one hand, I managed to hold him down' pretty dam weak werewolf, but this bit is my favourite 'and with my other, I put my wand to his throat, I then screwed up my remaining strength and performed the immensely complex Homorphus Charm he let out a piteous moan, the fur vanished, the fangs shrank and he turned back into a man.' Hmm that's odd I am sure I remember reading that lycanthropy is incurable." she looked around at the shocked faces "I mean I know you 'Puffs are all about the loyalty but if he is lying about that what else is he lying about? The man is a moron and these books are all made up." she was breathing heavily but the look on the Hufflepuffs' faces was worth it.

Nobody said a word but Harry sat back down on the couch she, Hannah and Susan had been sitting on and acted as if she couldn't see the glances she periodically got from the decreasingly crowded common room.

"You have a bit of a temper when your rattled don't you?" Hannah asked laughing.

"You could have helped." Harry said pulling her potions homework back towards her.

"We said we believed you. As in we trust that you are right because we know you, not that we have seen the evidence ourselves." said Susan "Us 'Puffs are all about the loyalty, remember." she finished with a cheeky grin. Harry smiled back at her.

"Thanks, Ches"

"Anytime, Harry"

* * *

Three hours.

That's how long he had been staring at Fawkes, the exact same amount of time that Fawkes had been staring at him. Harriet Potter... Albus should have tried to keep James and Lilly apart... the girl was like a force of nature, unstoppable. She got that from Lilly, both her temper and intelligence, but adding in James' rather wonky moral code...

Albus was just lucky she didn't hex Gilderoy, she certainly thought about it a few times. It's all about intent with a curse, that's probably why James lived long enough to actually get Lilly to go out with him. Lilly never really meant to seriously injure him, humiliate him yes, but she never truly wanted to hurt him.

But Harriet... Harriett wanted to cause him pain and had Albus not been in the room she probably would have. But she hadn't wanted to hurt him when she entered; she had been almost docile... for her.

But that made no sense at all Gilderoy's actions were to be expected and Harriet was certainly intelligent enough to know he would say the things he did.

Fawkes made a chuckling sound, he knew what was wrong with Harriet but he clearly didn't feel like sharing that information. An old unease flickered through his mind before he dismissed it, Harriet wasn't turning evil and if she was Fawkes would tell him.

He leaned back in his chair when he noticed Fawkes was glaring at him.

"You can't blame me for considering that, not after Tom." he said, Fawkes lessened his glare but didn't look away until Albus did.

Really he should have know anyway, no matter what he told his familiar, Fawkes had grown rather fond of Harriet and if Albus wasn't mistaken he would come back for her, after delivering Albus into the next world.

Fawkes didn't respond; Albus took that as confirmation.

"Looks like I will finally win a bet against you old friend." Fawkes had once mentioned the fact he had never been female and had always wanted to see what it was like. Albus had been particularly annoyed when his question of whether Fawkes had thought he was straight was crudely answered with 'No. Nobody could think that while you're wearing _that_'

Just to spite the phoenix Albus had bet that he would never be female and now it would appear that he had been right.

Fawkes held his gaze for a moment and trilled smugly. Albus was confused for nearly five seconds before he gasped.

"She's not..?"

* * *

Oliver beat his promise by a whole day, probably due to Lilith's help, and when Harry came down the stairs into the common room a he was snoring quietly against the notice board.

Harry's attempt to wake him by shaking him lightly failed so she gave up and shouted at him instead "Oliver!" he jerked awake "Sleeping against a wall, that is impressive."

"Potter!" he said after his eyes had focused and he had stopped swaying "I wanted to catch you."

"Yeah, I got that by you being down here hours before everyone else usually gets up. What did you want?"

"I have planned a practice for Tuesday at six." Harry waited but he didn't seem to have anything else to say.

"That's it? That is all you wanted to say," he nodded, "Why didn't you just write it on the list of names?" he opened his mouth, waited a few seconds and when it became apparent nothing was going to come out he closed it again.

Harry shook her head and walked off to breakfast, clearly logical thought was not Oliver's strong point.

But thinking about Quidditch and the practices that Oliver was certain to put her through she had realised one large problem she hadn't considered before. Quidditch was very physical. She had only flown for about two hours yesterday and all last night she had been in minor, but constant, pain. This morning the pain was gone but she was still very stiff. It was clear that Harry was not as fit as was necessary for the sport and decided she would start running like one of the women in the orphanage. Two or three days a week would be good enough and she could do it in the morning before anyone was up.

After demolishing at least two packs of bacon and her morning cup of tea she left the great hall and wandered into the ground sit wasn't until a good half an hour later she realised what was wrong. Since her first Defence against the dark arts 'lesson', whenever she had gone outside in the morning, Fawkes had come to sit with her but he hadn't shown up this time. She hoped he wasn't upset that she didn't come down into the grounds the day before, but she just hadn't felt like it.

Harry berated herself 'He's a phoenix he probably has much more interesting things to do than sit with a little girl.'

She was brought suddenly out of the thoughts by a house elf, who suddenly appeared in front of her. She blinked.

"You're not a Hogwarts elf," she said eventually, Fred and George had shown her the kitchens last year and the Hogwarts elves were each dressed smartly, in tea-towels true, but they still held themselves with pride. This elf however...

"No, Miss, Dobby is not," he said shaking his head, his bat like ears flapping, "Dobby has come to warn Miss Harriet..."

"Harry." Harry had to fight to keep the irritation out of her voice just the thought of Dumbledore... she forced herself to breathe and concentrate on the matter at hand.

"Dobby is sorry, Miss. Harry Potter," said the elf "Dobby meant no disrespect. Dobby has come to warn Miss. Harry Potter."

"Warn me about what?" if this was another of the old man's games...

"Dobby heard tell," He said hoarsely "That Miss. Harry Potter met the Dark Lord for a second time, just last year … that Harry Potter escaped yet again."

"Voldemort? Yeah..."

"Ah, speak not the name, Miss! Speak not the name!"

The idiocy of being scared by a name hit Harry again but now was not really the time to point out flaws in the wizarding world.

"Miss. Harry Potter must not stay at Hogwarts." Dobby continued after it became clear Harry wasn't going to respond.

"What? Why would I leave the one place that I think of as home? This is the one place I belong."

"No, no, no," squeaked Dobby, shaking his head so hard his ears flapped "Miss. Harry Potter must go to where she is safe. She is too great, too good, to lose. If Miss. Harry Potter stays at Hogwarts, she will be in mortal danger!"

"Why?" said Harry in surprise.

"There is a plot, Miss. Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year." whispered Dobby, suddenly trembling all over "Dobby has known it for months, Miss, but Dobby did not know you came here. Miss. Harry Potter must not put herself in peril. She is too important, Miss!"

"Right, I am going to tell Headmaster Dumbledore he'll sort all this out. Don't worry, Dobby, Dumbledore will keep me safe." she smiled at the elf but Dobby didn't seem reassured.

"Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had. Dobby knows it, Miss. Dobby has heard Dumbledore's powers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the height of his strength. But, Miss" — Dobby's voice dropped to an urgent whisper — "There are powers Dumbledore doesn't … powers no decent wizard …"

And suddenly he dropped to the floor and started slamming his head against the ground "Bad Dobby, Bad Dobby!" he screamed.

"Dobby stop!" he stilled but Harry had to pull him up off the ground "Come on, we need to go to the Headmaster"

"No! Dobby cannot! His family have forbidden it!" he backed slowly away from Harry "Miss. Harry Potter must leave this place, promise Dobby!"

"I can't, sorry Dobby, but this is where I am supposed to be." Harry said.

"Then Miss. Harry Potter leaves Dobby no choice." said the elf sadly, and with a click of his fingers he disappeared.

"Is it too much to just ask for a normal life?" Harry said out loud. She shook her head and turned back towards the castle.

* * *

**Minor shout out to Dave (he doesn't read this but I said I'd put one in for him anyway), 'You are and always will be, A Dave'**

**And I **_**really**_** promise having Colin for you next chapter.**

**Danni xxx**


	13. The Voice in the Wall

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

"Sherbet lemon!" Harry shouted at the gargoyle and it suddenly hit her how ridiculous that password was... only Dumbledore...

"He isn't up there." said the gargoyle without moving.

"Do you know where he is?" she asked.

"Nope, he should be back soon though," it said "You can wait in his office if you want." and it jumped aside.

"Thanks." she went up to his office and walked in.

The portraits were watching her carefully but Harry was more interested in the phoenix by the door.

"Hey Fawkes," she said, he answered with a chirrup "Why didn't you come and sit with me today?" she made her voice as casual as possible, she didn't want to sound demanding.

Fawkes trilled; there were no words but this time she could hear a meaning in the beautiful song.

"Do that again." said Harry, listening more carefully.

Fawkes repeated his song. Sorrow. Time? Haste. Forgiveness?

"Are you apologizing?" Harry asked shocked, Fawkes nodded. "You weren't there because you were busy?" Harry guessed; Fawkes nodded again.

"It's fine Fawkes. I forgive you... this time." she added playfully, Fawkes trilled again... Humour, he was laughing.

She stood stroking him for a few minutes before turning to explore the rest of the room, she had no idea what most of the little silver instruments did but they were probably very expensive so she left them alone. She paused as she walked past the sorting hat.

'It did want to talk to me.' Harry thought.

Shrugging she grabbed it and threw it onto her head.

"Ah Miss. Potter, I wondered when you would come to visit me." said the voice she had heard during the sorting.

'I didn't.' she thought.

"I see, you're waiting here for Albus to return," yes she needed to tell him about Dobby and if this wasn't all another one of his games then... "It's not. I shouldn't really be telling you this but the safety of the school is paramount, Albus has no knowledge of this and you need to warn him." they were both silent for a few seconds before Harry brought up what the hat had said in her sorting.

'What did you mean when you said there was much more to me than I know?'

"That isn't really something I can just tell you Miss. Potter. You will have to find that out for yourself; at the right time and in the right way. Although you should probably say to Albus that a dementor can do the job that he needs doing, I can't tell him myself but there is nothing stopping you from telling him."

That confused her 'What job? And what is a dementor?'

"Why don't you ask Albus? After all he is standing right behind you."

Harry whipped the hat off her head and turned around.

"I am sorry sir, it's just..." Dumbledore held up his hand to silence her.

"I quite understand," he said "Curiosity is not a sin." he waved his hand towards the chair in front of his desk and settled into the one behind it "I enjoy talking to the sorting hat myself. It often gives me a new direction to look at things from. Sherbet lemon?" he offered waving his hand at a bowl on his desk, she took one and he did the same.

"Sir," she asked hesitantly after a brief pause, in which Dumbledore was clearly content with just waiting for Harry to speak "What is a dementor? I am sure I have seen them mentioned in one of my Care of Magical Creatures books but I can't remember what they are exactly."

"Well you find much information in a _Care_ of Magical Creatures book." he said with a small chuckle "They are like wraiths, in a way, the ministry uses them to guard the prison Azkaban. They also have the ability to suck out somebody's soul. Why would you be asking about them?"

"Because the hat told me to tell you that a dementor could do the job that you need doing. What job would that be?" Shock crossed the old man's face before he covered it.

Ignoring Harry's question entirely he turned to Fawkes "Is that possible?" Fawkes trilled. Acceptance and... irritation?

Dumbledore turned back to Harry "It isn't important at the moment, Harriet, but I will show you when the time is right. Now you didn't come here to talk about dementors did you?"

Harry was a little annoyed she was being brushed off but there was no point in arguing "No sir, a house elf just came to me and told me I was in danger here."

"At Hogwarts?" he asked, Harry nodded "Can you show me a memory of it? I have a pensive here." he said walking to a cabinet which opened to reveal a stone bowl.

"How?" Harry asked.

"Just focus on the memory and place your wand to your temple like so..." He placed his wand against his head and when he removed it a silvery string was connected to it, which he placed in the bowl. A miniature Dumbledore complete with a phoenix sitting on a perch rose from the gaseous surface within.

"_You know Fawkes," _said the Dumbledore in the bowl; patting his familiar calmly _"Another Christmas has gone by and again not one person has bought me any socks; they insist on buying me books."_

The real Dumbledore shook his head "As if I don't have enough already."

"But why socks?" Harry asked nonplussed.

"One can never have too many woollen socks, Harriet." he said seriously "Now you try."

Harry copied his actions and removed a memory from her head; it felt strange but satisfying, like unclogging your ears with a cotton bud.

They stood in silence as they watched the memory play.

"Thank you for coming to me with this Harriet," Dumbledore said eventually "Please pass along any other information you come across, I will attempt to track down this 'Dobby'."

"And this _isn't_ one of your little tests is it sir?" Harry asked not completely convinced by the sorting hat.

"No Harriet, I promise you." he said.

"Good because I am still trying to work out what Nitwit means... you couldn't give me another clue, could you?" he chuckled at her.

"No, I am afraid not. But I will tell you that you are thinking too hard about it," His eyes twinkled madly "And don't let it annoy you too much; I don't really expect you to find an answer." Harry nodded but they both knew she would continue looking.

"Goodbye Headmaster, goodbye Fawkes." she stroked Fawkes and left the office she shook her head as she realised that she had visited it twice in two days.

In her distraction she almost ran straight into another student.

"Oh, sorry!" she said before she realised it was Ginny.

"Hi" Ginny said. She blushed, as did the boy standing next to her with mousy brown hair. The third member of their group however, who Harry recognised from the night of the sorting simply by the startling depth of her blue eyes, turned to her and instantly started talking.

"Hello, I'm Claire. Ginny says she knows you, you are Harriet Potter, right?"

"Harry," Harry stressed "Don't call me Harriet." even though Harry had said it rather aggressively the girl, Claire, didn't appear offended.

"Sure, you know Ginny and this is Colin Creevey." The boy in question turned bright red at being focused on and wouldn't meet Harry's eyes. "We are exploring Hogwarts Colin has been taking pictures nonstop as well" she said nodding to Colin's hands, which were indeed griped a camera that looked so old fashioned that it had to be magical.

"Do you mind if I take one of you?" Colin asked nervously "Just to prove I have actually met you. I know all about you. Everyone's told me. About how you survived when You-Know-Who tried to kill you and how he disappeared and everything and how you've still got a lightning scar on your forehead" his eyes raked Harry's hairline "And a boy in my dormitory said if I develop the film in the right potion, the pictures'll move." Colin drew a great shuddering breath of excitement and said, "It's amazing here, isn't it? I never knew all the odd stuff I could do was magic till I got the letter from Hog warts. My dad's a milkman, he couldn't believe it either. So I'm tak ing loads of pictures to send home to him. And it'd be really good if I had one of you" — he looked imploringly at Harry — "maybe if Ginny or Claire could take it and I could stand next to you? And then, could you sign it?"

Harry desperately wanted to say 'no' and possibly fire off a couple of hexes at him but that would probably drastically reduce Ginny's chances on becoming friends with the other two and as annoying as she was, Ginny and her family had been _very _good to her over the holidays. Sure she was going to regret it; she agreed and stood by Colin as an enthusiastic Ginny took their picture.

"Thanks Harry!" Colin said taking the camera off Ginny and the three of them said their goodbyes and left.

Feeling rather like she had been mugged, Harry continued back to the Gryffindor common room... It was going to be a long year.

* * *

As September changed to October the weather turned colder and damper and Madmen Pomfrey was suddenly busy with a wave of colds among both students and staff and the pepper up potion she gave out had half of the school smoking at the ears.

Hagrid's pumpkins, which he proudly showed off to anyone he could, were now the same size as the average garden shed and Harry was sure he was using magic on them regardless of the fact he wasn't legally allowed to do so.

Quidditch training was rather fun but Oliver kept them out longer each practice and his determination to win became increasingly obvious. So much so that on more than one occasion one of the twins had to threaten to use their beater's bat in a more personal manner than just hitting iron balls just so they had time to get back to Gryffindor tower in time for curfew.

Harry's own private training, while at first very challenging, was going well. After only a month and a half of running every other day Harry was seeing vast improvements in her speed and stamina. She also found she was constantly full of energy and that she didn't need to sleep as much as she used to. But best of all was the fact she no longer felt stiff or sore, no matter how long Oliver kept them on the pitch.

The issue of the boy called Colin Creevey, however, had not improved... in fact it had gotten a lot worse. Colin was seemingly under the impression that Harry was some kind of goddess and that she needed to be worshiped at every corner, literally. He had seemingly memorised Harry's timetable as Harry could not go a single weekday without hearing "Hello Harry!" six or seven times. Nothing seemed to please him more than getting a response from her even if it was only a nod of the head or a bored "Hullo Colin."

And then there was the issue of classes.

Lockhart – Harry refused to even _think_ 'Professor' – had not brought any more creatures into the class, instead reading from his book, but that did not mean he grew any less irritating or that his lessons became any more useful. All of the extracts were obviously embellished and some, like the one Harry had read out to the Hufflepuffs, were completely fake. Harry made a mental note to start up a DADA club and ask a few older years to come and teach them something worthwhile.

During his classes Harry insisted on asking bizarre and difficult questions on the topics he taught, and sometimes on completely different topics as well, simply to watch him squirm. To Harry's shock and delight Hermione had joined her in this venture; she had taken the fact Lockhart had lied in his books a little harder than was strictly necessary and seemed to want to make him pay for it. She asked questions Harry didn't even understand right up to the point when she had simply come out with "Why are there no actual facts in your books, Professor?" Lockhart simply refused to look at her after that, much less pick her when she raised her hand.

Harry had been considerably nicer to Hermione since then.

And even though Snape had been rather neutral to all the Gryffindors in her class since her first potions lesson, he had started being much stricter to Harry and her house mates. Harry had not reacted to this change even though when he took points off Hermione, for stopping Lavender adding the diced limpwurt root too early, Harry's temper nearly reached boiling point. But Harry was trying to behave herself and having a personal vendetta against one of the Hogwarts staff was enough for the time being.

But Harry's rather violent mood swings, inane arguments and anger at all things carrying a camera were all much worse than usual. The reason for this was the fact it was October and October meant only one thing to Harry. It was the same reason Hagrid was breaking the law to pump up a few pumpkins, the reason the great hall had been decorated with live bats, the reason almost every student was chatting excitedly and swapping scary stories and the reason there was a rumour that Dumbledore had hired a troupe of dancing skeletons... Halloween.

Last Halloween Harry had spent in class, then cheering up Hermione... not what she had planned on the anniversary of her parents' death but this particular Halloween was set on a Saturday which meant no classes. She spent the day thinking about her parents wondering what they were like and what her life would have been like had Voldemort never existed. She ate both lunch and dinner in the kitchens, using her invisibility cloak to get there both times, the rest of the day she spent by the lake with liberal use of warming charms.

"What, may I ask, are you doing out here, Harriet?" the voice from behind her broke into her thoughts but Harry showed no external signs that she had heard him, she had known he was there having heard his approach.

"Isn't the more important question 'Why are you out here, Headmaster?' don't they need you inside?" Harry countered, without turning round.

"I am sure my excellent Deputy Head can cope without me for one evening. Especially if I am needed elsewhere." he said.

They were quiet for a few minutes until Harry spoke up again. "I didn't feel like being around people today and celebrating isn't something that interests me on this particular date."

"I can understand that." Dumbledore said in a voice that left Harry with no doubts of his truthfulness.

"Do..." Harry started nervously. This was something she had been thinking about all day but when she asked the question, it couldn't be taken back. "Do you know... where they're buried?"

Harry heard Dumbledore take a deep breath before he answered.

"Yes, Godric's Hollow, not a stone's throw away from the cottage Lilly insisted they buy is a little church..." he left the sentence hang as if he couldn't finish it.

"Would it be possible if someone could take me sometime?" Harry asked, turning to face him for the first time during the conversation.

Dumbledore's eyes were impossible to read in the few minutes he was silent but Harry waited and eventually he answered. "I myself visit the same graveyard on Christmas Eve every year, if you like you my join me."

Harry wasn't really sure what to say to that because if he went there every year anyway that meant...

"Yes thank you, sir" Harry said softly when she realised Dumbledore was waiting for a reply.

"Perhaps we should return indoors, Harriet. The feast will soon be finished in any case and if I were you I would want to be in my dormitory before it is."

Harry nodded and followed the headmaster towards the castle; she didn't even have the energy to be annoyed at his use of her full name. While their conversation had been short it had been very draining.

They were halfway across the entrance hall when Harry heard it.

"_... rip ... tear ... kill ..._" it was a cold murderous voice and Harry yelped in shock causing Dumbledore to turn towards her his wand drawn.

"Harriet?" he asked after taking a quick look around.

"That voice!" Harry said.

"What voice?" Dumbledore asked confused.

"_... sso hungry ... for so long ..._"

"That voice!" Harry cried.

"_... kill ... time to kill ..._"

The voice was growing fainter. Harry was sure it was moving away — moving upward. A fear gripped her as she stared at the dark ceiling; it was going to kill... and how could it be moving up ward? Was it a phantom, to whom stone ceilings didn't matter?

"This way," she shouted, and she began to run, up the stairs to the first floor she could hear Dumbledore only a step behind her keeping up all the way.

"Harriet, what are we —"

"SHH!"

Harry strained her ears. Distantly, from the floor above, and growing fainter still, he heard the voice: "… _I smell blood. …_ _I SMELL BLOOD_!"

Her stomach lurched —

"It's going to kill someone!" she stated, and Dumbledore visibly changed the grip on his wand, she ran up the next flight of steps three at a time, trying to listen over her own pounding footsteps —

Harry hurtled around the whole of the second floor, Dumbledore still keeping pace but no longer interrupting her with questions, not stopping until they turned a corner into the last, deserted passage.

Only when they had fully stopped did Dumbledore speak up "Harriet, may I ask was that was all about?" from his tone the question was not one she could refuse to answer. "I couldn't hear anything. …"

But Harry merely raised her arm, pointing down the corridor.

Something was shining on the wall ahead. They approached slowly, squinting through the darkness. Foot-high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the flaming torches.

_THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN_

_OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE._

But that was not all. As they edged nearer, Harry saw a dark shadow below the writing they inched towards the message, taking care of where they stepped, there was a large puddle of water on the floor. Suddenly Harry realized what it was, and leapt backward with a splash. Dumbledore took his eyes off what Harry now recognised as Mrs. Norris, Filtch's cat, and looked at the water.

He bent his knees and then straitened them out sharply, jumping an inch or so off the ground and falling back down with a splash. He frowned at the floor and repeated his actions three times in quick succession.

Harry was about to ask what he was doing but managed to stop herself just in time. Instead she chose the safer option of "What happened to Mrs. Norris?"

"I don't know." said Dumbledore, clearly upset that she didn't ask the question he wanted her to. He turned towards the hanging cat but before he could do anything a rumble, as though of distant thunder, told them that the feast had just ended. From either end of the corridor where they stood came the sound of hundreds of feet climbing the stairs, and the loud, happy talk of well-fed people; next moment, students were crashing into the passage from both ends.

The chatter, the bustle, the noise died suddenly as the people in front spotted the hanging cat. Harry and Dumbledore stood alone, in the middle of the corridor, Dumbledore hidden slightly as he had taken to examining the water again. Silence fell among the mass of students pressing forward to see the grisly sight.

Then someone shouted through the quiet.

"Enemies of the Heir, beware! You'll be next, Mudbloods!"

It was Draco Malfoy. He had pushed to the front of the crowd, his cold eyes alive, his usually bloodless face flushed, as he grinned at the sight of the hanging, immobile cat. Harry reached for her wand but stopped at the voice behind her.

"Detention, Mr. Malfoy." Dumbledore said almost absentmindedly. Most of the students jumped having not seen him before then and Draco's face flushed deeper, this time in embarrassment.

"What's going on here? What's going on?"

Attracted no doubt by Malfoy's shout, Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd. Then he saw Mrs. Norris and fell back, clutching his face in horror.

"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked.

And his popping eyes fell on Harry.

"_You_!" he screeched. "_You_! You've murdered my cat! You've killed her! I'll kill you! I'll —"

"_Argus_!" said Dumbledore as he calmly detached the cat from the torch bracket.

"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch. "You, too, Harriet."

Lockhart stepped forward eagerly from the group of teachers that had just arrived.

"My office is nearest, Headmaster — just upstairs — please feel free —"

"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore.

The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Lockhart, looking ex cited and important, hurried after Dumbledore; so did Professors McGonagall and Snape.

As they entered Lockhart's darkened office there was a flurry of movement across the walls; Harry saw several of the Lockharts in the pictures dodging out of sight, their hair in rollers. The real Lockhart lit the candles on his desk and stood back. Dumbledore laid Mrs. Norris on the polished surface and began to examine her.

The tip of Dumbledore's long, crooked nose was barely an inch from Mrs. Norris's fur. He was looking at her closely through his half-moon spectacles, his long fingers gently prodding and poking. Professor McGonagall was bent almost as close, her eyes narrowed. Snape loomed behind them, half in shadow, wearing a most pecu liar expression: It was as though he was trying hard not to smile. And Lockhart was hovering around all of them, making sugges tions while everyone else was clearly ignoring him.

"It was definitely a curse that killed her — probably the Trans-mogrifian Torture — I've seen it used many times, so unlucky I wasn't there, I know the very counter curse that would have saved her. …"

Lockhart's comments were punctuated by Filch's dry, racking sobs. He was slumped in a chair by the desk, unable to look at Mrs. Norris, his face in his hands. Much as she detested Filch, Harry couldn't help feeling a bit sorry for him, though not nearly as much as she would have if it was somebody else's familiar.

Dumbledore was now muttering strange words under his breath and tapping Mrs. Norris with his wand but nothing happened: She continued to look as though she had been recently stuffed.

"… I remember something very similar happening in Ouagadougou," said Lockhart, "a series of attacks, the full story's in my autobiography, I was able to provide the townsfolk with various amulets, which cleared the matter up at once. …"

The photographs of Lockhart on the walls were all nodding in agreement as he talked. One of them had forgotten to remove his hair net.

At last Dumbledore straightened up.

"She's not dead, Argus," he said softly.

Lockhart stopped abruptly in the middle of counting the num ber of murders he had prevented.

"Not dead?" choked Filch, looking through his fingers at Mrs. Norris. "But why's she all — all stiff and frozen?"

"She has been Petrified," said Dumbledore ("Ah! I thought so!" said Lockhart). "But how, I cannot say. …"

"Ask _her_!" shrieked Filch, turning his blotched and tearstained face to Harry.

"Harry may be rather gifted in the magical arts but no second year could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly. "It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced —"

"She did it, she did it!" Filch spat, his pouchy face purpling. "You saw what she wrote on the wall! And everyone knows — _she_ knows I'm a — I'm a —" Filch's face worked horribly. "She knows I'm a Squib!" he finished.

"I never _touched_ Mrs. Norris!" Harry said calmly, fully aware that Dumbledore would never try to pin this on her. "And I didn't know you are a Squib."

"If I might speak, Headmaster," said Snape from the shadows, cutting across whatever Filtch was going to say. Harry's sense of foreboding increased; she was sure nothing Snape had to say was going to do her any good.

"Potter and may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said, a slight sneer curling his mouth as though he doubted it. "But we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why was she in the upstairs corridor at all? Why wasn't she at the Halloween feast?"

"Harriet was with me before we chanced across Mrs. Norris, Severus, and surely you don't think she would be celebrating on this particular anniversary?" Dumbledore asked.

Snape looked like he had been slapped and took a step backwards but Filtch looked furious.

"My cat has been Petrified!" he shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want to see some punishment!"

"We will be able to cure her, Argus," said Dumbledore patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris."

"I'll make it," Lockhart butted in. "I must have done it a hun dred times. I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep —"

"Excuse me," said Snape in a rather strained voice even though he still managed to sound quite hostile. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school."

There was a very awkward pause.

"If you don't mind, Harriet, I would like a memory of tonight's events from your point of view, young eyes and ears often pick up more than mine do." Dumbledore asked. Harry knew he was talking about the voice she had heard and she nodded quickly.

After giving him a bottled memory, which he immediately labelled with a quill he seemed to pull from the air, Dumbledore told her she could leave and she did so without hesitation. As she reached the portrait hole she realised that she would probably be interrogated by the entire house as soon as she went in, unfortunately using the invisibility cloak was impossible as everybody would see the portrait hole open anyway.

She took a deep breath and went in.

* * *

For a few days, the school could talk of little else but the attack on Mrs. Norris. Filch kept it fresh in everyone's minds by pacing the spot where she had been attacked, as though he thought the at tacker might come back. Harry had seen him scrubbing the mes sage on the wall with Mrs. Skower's All-Purpose Magical Mess Remover, but to no effect; the words still gleamed as brightly as ever on the stone. When Filch wasn't guarding the scene of the crime, he was skulking red-eyed through the corridors, lunging out at unsuspecting students and trying to put them in detention for things like 'breathing loudly' and 'looking happy.' Harry reassessed how sorry she felt for him although she did hear from Daphne Greengrass, a Slytherin in Harry's year, that Draco had returned from his detention, which had been overseen by the caretaker, even paler than usual and muttering about frog's brains and that made her smile... the blonde was really starting to get on Harry's nerves.

Ginny Weasley seemed very disturbed by Mrs. Norris's fate. Ac cording to Ron, she was a great cat lover and both she and her friend, Claire, were often seen looking quite upset, whenever the subject was brought up.

"But you haven't really got to know Mrs. Norris," Ron told them bracingly. "Honestly, we're much better off without her." Ginny's lip trembled. "Stuff like this doesn't often happen at Hogwarts," Ron assured her. "They'll catch the maniac who did it and have him out of here in no time. I just hope he's got time to Petrify Filch before he's expelled. I'm only joking —" Ron added hastily as Ginny and Claire both blanched.

The attack had also had an effect on Hermione. It was quite usual for Hermione to spend a lot of time reading, but she was now doing almost nothing else. Nor could anyone get much re sponse from her when they asked what she was up to, and not un til the following Wednesday did they find out when Lavender and Parvati had came and pleaded with Harry to go and talk some sense into the bushy haired girl.

"Come on Harry, you seem to be much better at this kind of a thing than anyone else." Parvati said, clearly thinking back to the Halloween the previous year.

"Yeah, and she just won't listen to us." said Lavender, clearly put out by that fact.

"Right, come on then." Harry said, picking up her bag.

They found Hermione, predictably, in the library. Harry cornered her and demanded she told them what was wrong.

"_All_ the copies of _Hogwarts, A History_ have been taken out," she said, sitting down at a nearby table. "And there's a two-week waiting list. I wish I hadn't left my copy at home, but I couldn't fit it in my trunk with all the Lockhart books."

"Why do you want it?" said Harry.

"The same reason everyone else wants it," said Hermione, "To read up on the legend of the Chamber of Secrets."

"The thing that the wall said was open? What is it?" asked Harry quickly.

"That's just it. I can't remember," said Hermione, biting her lip. "And I can't find the story anywhere else —"

"Hermione, this obsesiveness isn't good for you," said Lavender in a caring voice Harry hadn't thought she was capable of. "Just put your name on the waiting list and forget about it for now"

"It isn't as if you can do anything about it" said Parvati nodding.

The bell rang through the quiet of the library.

"Come on, we need to get to History. Binns probably wouldn't notice us missing but he will notice if we don't give in our essays.

History of Magic was still the dullest subject on their schedule. Pro fessor Binns, who taught it, was their only ghost teacher, and the most exciting thing that ever happened in his classes was his enter ing the room through the blackboard. Ancient and shrivelled, many people said he hadn't noticed he was dead. He had simply got up to teach one day and left his body behind him in an armchair in front of the staffroom fire; his routine had not varied in the slightest since.

Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor, occasionally com ing to long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again. He had been speaking for half an hour when some thing happened that had never happened before. Hermione put up her hand.

Professor Binns, glancing up in the middle of a deadly dull lecture on the International Warlock Convention of 1289, looked amazed.

"Miss — er — ?"

"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us any thing about the Chamber of Secrets," said Hermione in a clear voice.

Dean, who had been sitting with his mouth hanging open, gazing out of the window, jerked out of his trance; Lavender's head came up off her arms; Neville's el bow slipped off his desk and Harry heard Parvati sigh.

Professor Binns blinked.

"My subject is History of Magic," he said in his dry, wheezy voice. "I deal with, facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends." He cleared his throat with a small noise like chalk snapping and con tinued, "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers —"

He stuttered to a halt. Hermione's hand was waving in the air again.

"Miss Grant?"

"Please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?"

Professor Binns was looking at her in such amazement, Harry was sure no student had ever interrupted him before, alive or dead.

"Well," said Professor Binns slowly, "Yes, one could argue that, I suppose." He peered at Hermione as though he had never seen a student properly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational, even ludicrous tale —"

But the whole class was now hanging on Professor Binns's every word. He looked dimly at them all, every face turned to his. Harry could tell he was completely thrown by such an unusual show of interest.

"Oh, very well," he said slowly. "Let me see … the Chamber of Secrets …

"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago — the precise date is uncertain — by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."

He paused, gazed blearily around the room, and continued.

"For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students ad mitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Mug gle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."

Professor Binns paused again, pursing his lips, looking like a wrinkled old tortoise.

"Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said. "But these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing.

"Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Se crets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."

There was silence as he finished telling the story, but it wasn't the usual, sleepy silence that filled Professor Binns's classes. There was unease in the air as everyone continued to watch him, hoping for more. Professor Binns looked faintly annoyed.

"The whole thing is arrant nonsense, of course," he said. "Natu rally, the school has been searched for evidence of such a chamber, many times, by the most learned witches and wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible."

Hermione's hand was back in the air.

"Sir — what exactly do you mean by the 'horror within' the Chamber?"

"That is believed to be some sort of monster, which the Heir of Slytherin alone can control," said Professor Binns in his dry, reedy voice.

The class exchanged nervous looks.

"I tell you, the thing does not exist," said Professor Binns, shuf fling his notes. "There is no Chamber and no monster."

"But, sir," said Seamus, "If the Chamber can only be opened by Slytherin's true heir, no one else would be able to find it, would they?"

"Nonsense, O'Flaherty," said Professor Binns in an aggravated tone. "If a long succession of Hogwarts headmasters and head mistresses haven't found the thing —"

"But, Professor," piped up Parvati, "You'd probably have to use Dark Magic to open it —"

"Just because a wizard doesn't use Dark Magic doesn't mean he can't, Miss Pennyfeather," snapped Professor Binns. "I repeat, if the likes of Dumbledore —"

"But maybe you've got to be related to Slytherin, so Dumbledore couldn't —" began Dean, but Professor Binns had had enough.

"That will do," he said sharply. "It is a myth! It does not exist! There is not a shred of evidence that Slytherin ever built as much as a secret broom cupboard! I regret telling you such a foolish story! We will return, if you please, to history, to solid, believable, veritable fact!"

And within five minutes, the class had sunk back into its usual torpor, it was clear they weren't going to get any more out of him.

* * *

**I hope you liked this chapter because it took me ages to type. He-he.**

**Alice xxx**


	14. Encounters of the Hospital Kind

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

* * *

"I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old loony," Ron told Neville and Harry as they fought their way through the teeming corridors at the end of the lesson to drop off their bags before dinner. "But I never knew he started all this pure-blood stuff. I wouldn't be in his House if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I'd've got the train straight back home…"

"I don't know why." said Harry with the same air of aggressiveness that she usually had when Ron judged someone by the house they were sorted into. "I get the whole house rivalry thing but it has really gone too far, people are stupid and just assume that if some of the house is evil then all of it must be. I actually like some of the Slytherins."

Neville silently agreed but he blamed it on people like Snape and Malfoy and the people who didn't reprimand them when they did something wrong.

So caught up in his musings of Snape and what he would do to him if he thought he could get away with it, Neville was a shocked to find out that Ron was talking to him and Harry had disappeared.

"... Er... right." said Neville when it became clear Ron wanted a response, he just hoped that it fit with whatever Ron had said.

"Come on then" Ron replied. Neville sighed in relief and followed his friend down the corridor.

Neville was quite confused when they passed the stairs leading to the great hall, he had never even heard of Ron passing up the opportunity to eat food before. It was only when they turned around a corner to face the wall bearing the message "The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened." that he realised the direction the conversation must have taken.

"Can't hurt to have a poke around," said Ron as he walked up to the message and peered at it. Having being involved with the stone last year Neville was of the opinion that it in fact could hurt to 'Have a poke around.' "This looks different than paint, there is no bumpy-ness, it's like they just turned the stone a different colour."

"Bumpy-ness?" asked Neville, usually he didn't ask such dangerous questions but in this case he simply couldn't stop himself.

"Yeah, Bumpy-ness." Ron replied waspishly. Neville could see an argument coming on but didn't see a way he could avoid it, Ron could be very stubborn when it came to things like this and dropping it wasn't an option either as his initial remark would be seen as argument enough in Ron's eyes. Fortunately a voice from behind him distracted Ron from defending his made-up word.

"Have you found anything?" it was Hermione. "I heard you talking about it and wanted to come along, I just had to get rid of Lavender first."

"Well there is some scorch marks here... and here." said Neville bending down.

"Oh! Come and look at this!" said Hermione after a few seconds. "This is funny…"

Neville got up and crossed to the window next to the message on the wall. Hermione was pointing at the topmost pane, where around twenty spiders were scuttling, apparently fighting to get through a small crack. A long, silvery thread was dangling like a rope, as though they had all climbed it in their hurry to get outside.

"Have you ever seen spiders act like that?" said Hermione wonderingly.

"No," said Neville, "Have you, Ron? Ron?"

He looked over his shoulder. Ron was standing well back and seemed to be fighting the impulse to run.

"What's up?" said Neville.

"I — don't — like — spiders," said Ron tensely. Ron was afraid of spiders?

"I never knew that," said Hermione, looking at Ron in surprise. "You've used spiders in Potions loads of times…"

"I don't mind them dead," said Ron, who was carefully looking anywhere but at the window. "I just don't like the way they move…"

Hermione giggled, which Neville thought was quite insensitive but then again Ron was usually the same with her.

"It's not funny," said Ron, fiercely. "If you must know, when I was three, Fred turned my — my teddy bear into a great big filthy spider because I broke his toy broomstick. … You wouldn't like them either if you'd been holding your bear and suddenly it had too many legs and …"

He broke off, shuddering. Hermione was obviously still trying not to laugh. Feeling they had better get off the subject, Neville said, "Do you remember anything else about Halloween? Other than Harry and Dumbledore standing there." Neville briefly wondered why Harry wasn't with them or why she hadn't told them what had happened and why she was with Dumbledore in the corridor in the first place but he assumed it had already been discussed and it was probably why Harry had left them. She had quite a temper when she wanted.

"Yeah," said Ron, recovering himself to walk a few paces past Filch's chair and pointing. "There was loads of water. It was about level with this door."

He reached for the brass doorknob but suddenly withdrew his hand as though he'd been burned.

"What's the matter?" said Neville.

"Can't go in there," said Ron gruffly. "That's a girls' toilet."

"Oh, Ron, there won't be anyone in there," said Hermione, standing up and coming over. "That's Moaning Myrtle's place."

"Who's Moaning Myrtle?" asked Neville.

"A ghost of a student who died here, she haunts these toilets so nobody goes here."

"She haunts a toilet?" said Ron disbelievingly.

Hermione just nodded and, ignoring the large OUT OF ORDER sign, she opened the door.

It was the gloomiest, most depressing bathroom Neville had ever set foot in. Under a large, cracked, and spotted mirror was a row of chipped sinks. The floor was damp and reflected the dull light given off by the stubs of a few candles, burning low in their holders; the wooden doors to the stalls were flaking and scratched and one of them was dangling off its hinges.

Hermione put her fingers to her lips and set off toward the end stall. When she reached it she said, "Hello, Myrtle, how are you?"

Neville and Ron went to look. Moaning Myrtle was a squat ghost of a girl with a glum, half-hidden behind lank hair and thick, pearly spectacles and she was floating above the tank of the toilet, picking a spot on her chin.

"This is a girls' bathroom," she said, eyeing Ron and Neville suspiciously. "They're not girls."

"No," Hermione agreed. "I just wanted to show them how — er — nice it is in here."

She waved vaguely at the dirty old mirror and the damp floor.

"You didn't see anything on Halloween did you? Only a cat was attacked outside your door..." Neville left the question hanging.

"No I wasn't paying attention," said Myrtle dramatically. "I went to Nearly-Headless-Nick's Deathday party but Peeves upset me so much I came in here and tried to kill myself. Then, of course, I remembered that I'm — that I'm —"

"Already dead," said Ron helpfully.

Myrtle gave a tragic sob, rose up in the air, turned over, and dived headfirst into the toilet, splashing water all over them and vanishing from sight, although from the direction of her muffled sobs, she had come to rest somewhere in the U-bend.

Hermione shrugged wearily and said, "Honestly, that was almost cheerful for Myrtle. … Come on, let's go."

"At least we know where the water came from now." said Neville.

"We do?" asked Ron.

"Yeah, Myrtle." said Neville nodding his head.

"How can she manipulate things like that?" Hermione asked as she closed the door and they started towards the great hall "I thought ghosts were unable to move things."

Ron and Neville shrugged. Neville hadn't even noticed, but now that he thought about it he wondered how Professor Binns marked their work.

"It's Hogwarts" the three of them jumped and spun around and, sat on Filtch's chair, was Professor Dumbledore. "The ambient magic here grants them some amount of substance that they would not have elsewhere" He seemed completely at ease, as if he frequently sat there watching groups of boys and girls walk in and out of Myrtle's bathroom.

Hermione had gone stiff, Ron was now a nice shade of red and Neville felt like he was about to faint... if this got back to his grandmother...

"I trust you got the information you required from our past student?" he got three rather shaky nods "Oh, good! I trust that if you find out anything of worth that you will let me know?" another three shaky nods "In that case I wish you luck with your investigation" and with that he got up and left.

"That was unexpected" said Neville when he finally regained the use of his voice.

"Yeah..." said Ron, still slightly dazed. Hermione still hadn't moved a muscle.

It was turning out to be quite an unusual week.

* * *

Harry woke early on Saturday morning and lay for a while thinking about the coming Quidditch match. She was nervous, partly because she had never played in front of a crowd before... but also because she was more than a little afraid of Oliver's reaction if they lost. Harry did not think he was fanatic enough to resort to physical or magical retribution... yet... but that did not mean she thought it was beyond him to triple their practises. In fact it was surprising he hadn't already, although Harry did see him arguing with Professor McGonagall a few weeks before... perhaps he had tried and she had put her foot down.

After half an hour of lying there with her insides churning, she got up, dressed, went down to breakfast and waited for the rest of the Gryffindor team to traipse in and huddle around her at the long, empty table. As eleven o'clock approached, the whole school started to make its way down to the Quidditch stadium. It was a muggy sort of day with a hint of thunder in the air. Her fellow second years ran up to Harry to wish her luck. Harry knew Ches and Hannah would even though she wasn't of their house but it was the other Gryffindors that surprised her, Neville, Ron and Hermione all wished her luck despite her being short with them the past week.

Harry hadn't told them anything about what had happened on Halloween, she had told Ches but she didn't count... she didn't hide anything from Ches. Ches had tried to convince her that she wasn't going mad but even in the wizarding world hearing voices wasn't a good sign and Harry simply couldn't bear the odd looks she knew she would get from her housemates.

She knew that if she went to the Headmaster he would probably be able to tell her what she had heard but there was always a chance that Dumbledore had watched the memory and still not heard anything and if she insisted she had he would have her committed, or whatever wizards did to crazy people.

It was not the fact she was crazy that scared her, she had always known that. She just couldn't take everyone else finding out.

But this wasn't the time thinking about her lack of sanity. Oliver was trying to prep the team while ignoring the twin's comments that were making the rest of the team laugh.

Harry looked round the rather cramped changing room at her thirteen other teammates, knowing full well that seven of them probably wouldn't get to play, her counterpart on the second team particularly. David Mills, the smallest seventh year in the school, was looking around the room, not even trying to listen to Oliver, as if he was wondering if there was a point to him even being there.

"...and that is why we simply can't lose this match!" Oliver finished with a flourish; he looked around at their blank faces and sighed "None of you were listening, were you?"

"Did you want us to?" asked a clearly surprised Fred.

Oliver looked like he wanted to retort but thought better of it and just said "Let's go."

As they walked out onto the field, a roar of noise greeted them; mainly cheers, because Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were anxious to see Slytherin beaten, but the Slytherins in the crowd made their boos and hisses heard, too. Madam Hooch, the Quidditch teacher, asked Flint and Wood to shake hands, which they did, giving each other threatening stares and gripping rather a lot harder than was necessary.

"On my whistle," said Madam Hooch. "Three … two … one …"

With a roar from the crowd to speed them upward, the fourteen players rose toward the leaden sky. Harry flew higher than any of them, squinting around for the Snitch and keeping an eye on the Slytherin seeker, another seventh year, Terrence Higgs. The importance of the two seekers had decreased this year as the twins had convinced Professor McGonagall to lower the amount of points the snitch was worth down to one hundred.

But before she could start her search of the stadium a bludger came pelting towards her, she banked right to avoid it and George sped after it. George hit the bludger towards the nearby Terrence Higgs but before it even got halfway there it turned and rocketed back towards Harry.

Harry dropped quickly to avoid it, and George managed to hit it hard toward another Slytherin. Once again, the Bludger swerved like a boomerang and shot at Harry's head.

Harry put on a burst of speed and zoomed toward the other end of the field. He could hear the Bludger whistling along behind her. What was going on? Bludgers never concentrated on one player like this; it was their job to try and unseat as many people as possible…

Fred was waiting for the Bludger at the other end. Harry ducked as Fred swung at the Bludger with all his might; the Bludger was knocked off course.

"Gotcha!" Fred yelled happily, but he was wrong; as though it was magnetically attracted to Harry, the Bludger pelted after her once more and Harry was forced to fly off at full speed.

It had started to rain; Harry felt heavy drops fall onto her face, which made her disorientated. She didn't have a clue what was going on in the rest of the game until he heard Lee Jordan, who was commentating, say, "Gryffindor lead, fifty points to twenty —"

They were winning but it didn't sound like they would gain the one hundred point lead they would need, for Harry's role in the match to become unneeded, any time soon.

Meanwhile the mad Bludger was doing all it could to knock Harry out of the air. Fred and George were now flying so close to her on either side that Harry could see nothing at all except their flailing arms and had no chance to look for the Snitch, let alone catch it.

"Someone's — tampered — with — this — Bludger —" Fred grunted, swinging his bat with all his might at it as it launched a new attack on Harry.

"We need time out," said George, trying to signal to Wood and stop the Bludger breaking Harry's nose at the same time.

Wood had obviously got the message. Madam Hooch's whistle rang out and Harry, Fred, and George dived for the ground, still trying to avoid the mad Bludger.

"What's going on?" said Wood as the Gryffindor team huddled together, while Slytherins in the crowd jeered. "I can hardly see a thing above the line of the posts. Fred, George, where were you when that Bludger stopped Angelina scoring? In fact, where have you been all match?"

"We were twenty feet above her, stopping the other Bludger from murdering Harry, Oliver," said George angrily. "Someone's fixed it — it won't leave Harry alone. It hasn't gone for anyone else all game. The Slytherins must have done something to it."

"But the Bludgers have been locked in Madam Hooch's office since our last practice, and there was nothing wrong with them then…" said Wood, anxiously.

Madam Hooch was walking toward them. Over her shoulder, Harry could see the Slytherin team jeering and pointing in her direction.

"Look Oliver, I can hardly see the snitch let alone catch it you need to put me on the bench." Harry said, watching Oliver closely, waiting for his inevitable explosion.

"Actually I have a better idea." said an oddly dry Lilith from behind them, Oliver turned to her with a pleading look. "Place Katie on the bench, have Harry take her place and have David as the seeker." It really was strange what two months of people listening to your advice could do your confidence; Lilith would never have ordered Oliver around like that at the beginning of the year. "Use the fact they fixed he bludger to your advantage, if you know it is following you, you just have to make sure that they are between you and the bludger and you do have the fastest broom on the pitch."

Oliver considered this for just over half a second before agreeing he rarely disagreed with Lilith anymore; he knew her tactics were far superior. After a quick dissection with Madame Hooch, they were back in the air and Harry started her new role as 'The Human Bludger Magnet' and if Harry was honest with herself, she found it rather fun.

After five minutes of play the two Slytherin beaters had been reduced to defenders for their team, it took both of them to keep the rouge bludger off their players, owing to the speed of Harry's broom, and they couldn't use it to attack the Gryffindors as it just turned back towards Harry. This of course left the other bludger free for Fred and George to play with without interruption, something they used to great effect.

In the end Terrence Higgs did beat David to the snitch but with Gryffindor's One Hundred and twenty point lead it didn't make a difference. Unfortunately for Harry, however, the fact that the game was over did not stop the bludger from attempting to murder her like it usually would.

Harry blinked, the rain falling onto her face waking her up. She tried to sit and immediately regretted it; agony shot down her back and her left arm felt unnaturally heavy.

Her eyes flicked around and saw that the Gryffindor team had surrounded her. All of them looked worried even Oliver, which was rather impressive seeing that he was still smiling at the same time.

"Back away, back away!" called out Lockhart's irritating voice.

"Oh, no, not you," Harry moaned.

"Doesn't know what she's saying," said Lockhart loudly to the anxious crowd of Gryffindors now gathering around her. "Not to worry, Harry. I'll fix you right up."

"No!" said Harry. "I'm fine like this, thanks…"

She tried to reach for someone until she realised the reason her left arm felt heavy was because her forearm was broken, with the pain from her back addling her mind somewhat she could only wonder why she didn't feel that pain as well. She heard a familiar clicking noise nearby but it took her a little while to realise what it was.

"I don't want a photo of this, Colin, thank you anyway." she said rather politely.

"Lie back, Harry," said Lockhart soothingly. "It's a simple charm I've used countless times —"

"I don't think Madam Pomfrey likes others healing students, Gilderoy." said Harry. She giggled slightly and whispered "Gilderoy." again.

"I think she should really go to the Hospital wing, Professor." said Ron, who had just pushed to the front of the crowd and was trying to place himself between Harry and Lockhart. "As Harry says Madame Pomfrey doesn't really like other people treating the students."

Through the thicket of legs around her, Harry spotted Fred and George Weasley, wrestling the rogue Bludger into a box. It was still putting up a terrific fight, she giggled and tried to reach for it, accidentally moving her back as she did. The pain that shot through her this time cleared her mind slightly and she eventually came to the conclusion that letting Lockhart cast spells at her was probably a bad idea.

"Stand back," said Lockhart, who was rolling up his jade-green sleeves and nudging Ron backwards slightly.

"No — don't —" said Harry weakly, but Lockhart was twirling his wand and a second later had directed it straight at Harry who could only throw up her uninjured arm and shut her eyes.

There was a large bang and then everything fell silent.

* * *

Harry groaned and opened her eyes; the white ceiling of the hospital wing swam into view.

"Welcome back, Harry." said the familiar voice of Neville.

"Ugh, how long have I been out?" Harry asked, not really sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"About four hours," Neville replied "Madame Pomfrey fixed you up right away but she wanted you to wake up naturally, she is still working on Lockhart though..."

"What?" Harry asked "What happened to Lockhart?"

"Well, when he pointed his wand at you Ron pulled his wand out and tried to shield you. It probably would have worked if he had actually known how to properly cast one; it reflected most of his spell back as it was." Neville chuckled "Lockhart's own spell hits him and he goes flying, which is when Dumbledore shows up..."

"Dumbledore?" Harry interrupted.

"Yeah, he appeared in a pillar of flame with his phoenix on his shoulder. I think he cast diagnostic charms over the two of you as he told everyone not to worry about you but that Lockhart had turned all his internal organs into pieces of fruit..." he shrugged "Dumbledore and Pomfrey took him behind that curtain with a Saint Mungos' healer" he nodded towards the other end of the ward "They haven't come out since"

Harry wasn't too sure how to feel about that, he was an idiot but she didn't want him to die.

"The others wanted to stay with you as well" Neville started, tearing Harry's concentration away from the curtained bed "But Pomfrey said only one of us could stay, we rolled die and I won so..." he shrugged again.

"You're leaving Ron with a load of girls? You're not a very good friend are you?" Harry laughed.

Neville chuckled but shook his head "Ron could hang out with Dean or Shamus but he had to go to Diagon Alley to get a new wand, his broke in the explosion."

"What?" said Harry, suddenly more alert "I should pay for that, I am.."

"The school is paying for it," said Neville, cutting Harry off "McGonagall told me that she was going to go with them and pay for it as it was the fault of a teacher that his wand broke in the first place."

Harry relaxed at that, putting extra monetary worries on the Weasley family was the last thing she wanted to do.

"So, when can I get out of here?" Harry asked giving the curtained bed a quick glance.

"Not until tomorrow, Pomfrey wants you to stay so she can monitor you." Neville said, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, that's not going to happen." she got up and collected her things from the bedside table before heading towards the door. She only got about halfway there, however, before she heard a voice call out from behind her.

"Miss Potter." it was not just her name; it was a whole sentence. "Get back in your bed." Madame Pomfrey said, coming out from behind the curtain.

"You didn't honestly think you could get away did you?" asked Neville from his chair; he hadn't even moved a muscle.

Harry embraced her childish side and merely pouted. Neville laughed at her.

Madame Pomfrey seemed satisfied after waving her wand at Harry for a few minutes, told Harry to stay where she was and walked off to her office. It wasn't long before Dumbledore and the healer Neville had mentioned also exited the curtain.

"I am sorry headmaster," said the man in lime green robes "I have been working in spell damage for nearly forty years, but I have never seen self-sustaining transfiguration before. I am well out of my depth here."

"As am I," said Dumbledore surprising Harry "This is one of the greatest advancements of transfiguration ever. People have been trying for decades to obtain the same result of this."

"Yes, it is a shame he would die if you attempted to run magical tests to see how it works." said the healer, Dumbledore didn't seem to hear him, "I have to go, but I will make sure to put in the request for anti-magic handcuffs, binding his core like you have is only a quick fix."

Dumbledore nodded his approval, "Thank you David, it has been a pleasure, as always." David, as he was apparently called blushed slightly, mumbled a quick goodbye and left the hospital wing.

"Ah Harriet," Harry withheld her wince "You are awake. Good, good."

"Sir is Lockhart going to be ok?" Harry asked despite herself.

"Yes, perfectly, on the basis that he never comes into contact with any form of magic ever again... including his own." Dumbledore didn't look even remotely concerned about this fact. "Do not worry about it Harriet, it was his own fault and honestly, it couldn't have happened to a more deserving person."

Neville mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like "Malfoy" but he didn't correct the headmaster.

Harry on the other hand was going to ask what he was talking about but he started talking again anyway.

"Every time Gilderoy comes in contact with magic, be it his own magical core or the ambient magic in the castle, all of his organs turn into a random assortment of fruit. I don't know how or why and therefore I am not able to fix it." Dumbledore sighed "I just wish it transfigured something less vital to his survival I would love to know how that works." He trailed off looking far beyond Harry and Neville as his eyes slid out of focus. With a seemingly inhuman effort he pulled himself back to the present. "And now I have to go and figure out what I am supposed to do about defence against the dark arts. We have been rather unlucky this year... the professors usually last until Christmas at least." And with that he walked out the hospital wing leaving two rather stunned teens.

* * *

Hours and hours later, Harry woke quite suddenly in the pitch blackness and gave a small, confused yelp: something cold and wet was pressed against her forehead. Then, with a thrill of horror, she realized that it was a sponge and it was being pressed against her by somebody in the dark.

"Get off!" she said loudly, and then, "Dobby!"

The house-elf's goggling tennis ball eyes were peering at Harry through the darkness. A single tear was running down his long, pointed nose.

"Harry Potter stayed in school," he whispered miserably. "Dobby warned and warned Harry Potter. Ah miss, why didn't you heed Dobby? Why won't Harry Potter go back home where she will be safe?"

Harry heaved herself up on her pillows and pushed Dobby's sponge away.

"What're you doing here?" she said. "And why do you keep insisting I go home?"

Dobby's lip trembled and Harry huffed in frustration.

"Tell me dobby, this is serious." she said fiercely. "If you know something about what is going on – about some kind of danger in the school then you need to tell me, right now, before I start cursing you."

Dobby smiled weakly.

"Dobby is used to death threats, miss. Dobby gets them five times a day at home."

He blew his nose on a corner of the filthy pillowcase he wore; looking so pathetic that Harry felt her anger ebb away in spite of herself.

Dobby mopped his bulging eyes and said suddenly, "Harry Potter must go home! Dobby thought his Bludger would be enough to make —"

"Your Bludger?" said Harry, anger rising once more. "What d'you mean, your Bludger? You made that Bludger try and kill me?"

"Not kill you, miss, never kill you!" said Dobby, shocked. "Dobby wants to save Harry Potter's life! Better sent home, grievously injured, than remain here, miss! Dobby only wanted Harry Potter hurt enough to be sent home!"

"What?" asked Harry angrily. "What is going on that would be worse than being so badly injured that not even magic can fix it? Why are you doing this Dobby?"

"Ah, if Harry Potter only knew!" Dobby groaned, more tears dripping onto his ragged pillowcase. "If she knew what she means to us, to the lowly, the enslaved, we dregs of the magical world! Dobby remembers how it was when He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was at the height of his powers, miss! We house-elves were treated like vermin, miss! Of course, Dobby is still treated like that, miss," he admitted, drying his face on the pillowcase.

"But mostly, miss, life has improved for my kind since you triumphed over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Harry Potter survived, and the Dark Lord's power was broken, and it was a new dawn, miss, and Harry Potter shone like a beacon of hope for those of us who thought the Dark days would never end, miss. … And now, at Hogwarts, terrible things are to happen, are perhaps happening already, and Dobby cannot let Harry Potter stay here now that history is to repeat itself, now that the Chamber of Secrets is open once more —"

Dobby froze, horrorstruck, then grabbed Harry's water jug from her bedside table and cracked it over his own head, toppling out of sight. A second later, he crawled back onto the bed, cross-eyed, muttering, "Bad Dobby, very bad Dobby …"

"So there is a Chamber of Secrets?" Harry whispered. "And — did you say it's been opened before? Tell me, Dobby!"

She seized the elf's bony wrist as Dobby's hand inched toward the water jug. "But I'm not Muggle-born — how can I be in danger from the Chamber?"

"Ah, miss, ask no more, ask no more of poor Dobby," stammered the elf, his eyes huge in the dark. "Dark deeds are planned in this place, but Harry Potter must not be here when they happen — go home, Harry Potter, go home. Harry Potter must not meddle in this, miss, 'tis too dangerous —"

"Who is it, Dobby?" Harry said, keeping a firm hold on Dobby's wrist to stop him from hitting himself with the water jug again. "Who's opened it? Who opened it last time?"

"Dobby can't, miss, Dobby can't, Dobby mustn't tell!" squealed the elf. "Go home, Harry Potter, go home!"

"I'm not going anywhere!" said Harry fiercely. "One of my best friends is Muggle-born; she'll be first in line if the Chamber really has been opened —"

"Harry Potter risks her own life for her friends!" moaned Dobby in a kind of miserable ecstasy that quite frankly terrified Harry. "So noble! So valiant! But she must save himself, she must, Harry Potter must not —"

Dobby suddenly froze, his bat ears quivering. Harry heard it, too. There were footsteps coming down the passageway outside.

"Dobby must go!" breathed the elf, terrified. There was a loud crack, and Harry's fist was suddenly clenched on thin air. She slumped back into bed, his eyes on the dark doorway to the hospital wing as the footsteps drew nearer.

Next moment, Dumbledore was backing into the dormitory, wearing a long woolly dressing gown and a nightcap. He was carrying one end of what looked like a statue. Professor McGonagall appeared a second later, carrying its feet. Together, they heaved it onto a bed.

"Get Madam Pomfrey," whispered Dumbledore, and Professor McGonagall hurried past the end of Harry's bed out of sight. Harry lay quite still, pretending to be asleep. She heard urgent voices, and then Professor McGonagall swept back into view, closely followed by Madam Pomfrey, who was pulling a cardigan on over her nightdress. She heard a sharp intake of breath.

"What happened?" Madam Pomfrey whispered to Dumbledore, bending over the statue on the bed.

"Another attack," said Dumbledore. "Minerva found him on the stairs."

"There was a bunch of grapes next to him," said Professor McGonagall. "We think he was trying to sneak up here to visit Potter."

Harry's stomach gave a horrible lurch. Slowly and carefully, she raised himself a few inches so she could look at the statue on the bed. A ray of moonlight lay across its staring face.

It was Colin Creevey. His eyes were wide and his hands were stuck up in front of him, holding his camera.

"Petrified?" whispered Madam Pomfrey.

"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "But I shudder to think … If Albus hadn't been on the way downstairs for hot chocolate — who knows what might have —"

The three of them stared down at Colin. Then Dumbledore leaned forward and wrenched the camera out of Colin's rigid grip.

"You don't think he managed to get a picture of his attacker?" said Professor McGonagall eagerly.

Dumbledore didn't answer. He opened the back of the camera.

"Good gracious!" said Madam Pomfrey.

A jet of steam had hissed out of the camera. Harry, three beds away, caught the acrid smell of burnt plastic.

"Melted," said Madam Pomfrey wonderingly. "All melted …"

"What does this mean, Albus?" Professor McGonagall asked urgently.

"It means," said Dumbledore, "that the Chamber of Secrets is indeed open again."

Madam Pomfrey clapped a hand to her mouth. Professor McGonagall stared at Dumbledore.

"But, Albus … surely … who?"

"The question is not who," said Dumbledore, his eyes on Colin. "The question is, how. …"

And from what Harry could see of Professor McGonagall's shadowy face, she didn't understand this any better than Harry did, but Harry could no longer sit still.

The simple fact was: Colin had been coming to see her.

She quietly slipped out of bed and approached the trio.

"Headmaster?" she said startling both Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey.

"Am I to assume, Harriet," said Dumbledore as he slowly tore his eyes away from Colin to focus on Harry. "That you have had another talk with our rather elusive friend Dobby."

"Yes sir." Harry said wondering how he knew.

"I thought you might, after everything I heard about your first Quidditch match. If you would share you memory of this encounter I would be very grateful." He said, calmly conjuring a vial and holding it out to her.

"Of course, sir," Harry said, withdrawing her memory and placing it in the vial. "Anything I can do to help."

"Thank you." he slipped the memory into one of his pockets. "I shall do my best to keep you informed in this matter." And with that, and a nod to each of his colleagues he turned and strode out of the hospital wing.

Not twenty-four hours ago, Harry had won her first game of Quidditch, but looking at the curtains that housed Lockhart and the stone like creature that was once a boy with limitless enthusiasm, Harry could say in all honesty that the whole day would reset itself.

* * *

**Danni xxx**


	15. The Old Professor

**Disclaimer: I am not JKR and therefore do not own anything you recognise here**

**Apologies for once again leaving it so long however I had to fix my computer as I died and as good as my blackberry is, it's not really designed for uploading fanfiction chapters.**

**I am not sure when the next chapter will be out as it is proving rather difficult to write the graveyard scene but I shall to do my best to get it done and ignore the temptations of _Call of Duty_, _Assassin's Creed_, _Alice _and the new _Inheritance_ book... not that I think I will be that successful in this endeavour but I will try.**

**Anyway here is your next chapter of OLD.**

* * *

The News that Colin Creevey had been attacked and was lying in the hospital wing as though dead had spread through the entire school by Monday morning. The air was suddenly thick with suspicion and fear, both of which seemed to be mainly aimed at Harry. The rumours were apparently based on the fact Harry had been in the corridor before anyone else and the fact she was confirmed to be out of her dorm on the night of Colin's attack.

Students had started moving in large groups and every time Harry walked past them everyone shot her fearful looks... or hate filled glares depending on which house they were from and what their blood status was. Then again the Hufflepuffs seemed to have adopted a 'Wait and see' attitude and seemed mostly the same; Harry supposed that it was part of their whole loyalty-ness. Like with Lockhart they wouldn't turn their back on her without iron-clad proof.

The Gryffindor first years were especially distraught as not only was it one of their own that was attacked but, according to Ginny, Colin was rather well liked. Harry had even heard that a few of the girls had gone to see him in the hospital wing. She theorised that it must have something to do with knowing a nice guy involved in a near death experience because she wasn't interested in any boys now, let alone a year ago and she couldn't be that far behind development wise... could she?

And then there was Lockhart, who had disappeared before Harry had even woke up on the Sunday and not even Madame Pomfrey seemed to know where he had gone. Weather he left of his own accord or if he was 'helped' was unknown. Harry added it to the list of questions she was going to ask the old coot when she went to him after her lessons finished.

Harry had already filled everyone in on Dobby's visit and apart from commenting on how odd the elf was Hannah and Ches hadn't really added anything to the conversation. Hannah seemed distracted by her homework and Ches sat with her arms crossed, her eyes flicking around the Hufflepuff common room but never towards Hannah. Harry wondered if they had been fighting but didn't say anything, not wanting to cause more problems.

Hermione, Ron and Neville however had quite a lot to add... not that any of what they said was correct. Ron had somehow come to the conclusion that it was _Malfoy's_ fault. True he was one of the more vocal supporters of the 'Pure-blood cause' but the fact remained that he was a twelve year old _very_ mediocre wizard.

However the fact the Chamber had been open before was proof in Ron's eyes that Malfoy was the Heir, claiming that his father must have opened it last time. Hermione came up with an admittedly brilliant, and illegal, plan to find out if he was... Polyjuice potion. A potion that would turn somebody into an exact copy of somebody else for an entire hour allowing them to walk into the Slytherin common room undetected and ask Malfoy all the questions they could during their time. Harry opted out of going with them but agreed to help make the potion with them. The last thing she wanted was Neville killing the three of them by placing the ingredients in too early.

The issue of the Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching position was also covered on Monday morning, Dumbledore stood up about halfway through breakfast, the one time almost every was in the great hall. The seventh year Ravenclaws hadn't gone off to the library to research whatever NEWTs they were taking. The sixth year Slytherins had just strolled in, casually late – as always. The third to sixth year Gryffindors had only just stared eating their food at the required speed that they needed to so they would have time to finish whatever piece of homework they hadn't done to hand it in later that day.

The Hufflepuffs stayed seated from whenever they got to the hall to just before the start of their first class. Apparently, it was a house rule that breakfast was for friends, homework was to be done the night before.

"I know many of you are wondering who will be taking Professor Lockhart's place." Dumbledore said as soon as everyone had stopped talking... in other words, as soon as he stood up. It was clear that everyone deeply respected the old man... even if it was only grudgingly like most of the Slytherins. "You need not worry, go to your lessons as normal, an old Professor has reluctantly agreed to resume teaching for the rest of the year." after that he sat back down, the theories about the new professor turning wild and unbelievable.

Just one look at Dumbledore's smile and McGonagall shaking her head at him and Harry knew Dumbledore had been vague on purpose.

Not that it really mattered, the second year Gryffindors had Defence first thing on Mondays meaning that they would be the first to find out who the 'Old' professor was. When they got to the classroom they found all of the tables pushed up against one wall only leaving the professor's desk in its usual place. Not entirely sure what to do they just sat on the floor in what would have been their place had Lockhart not Fruitified himself... another term coined by the Weasley twins.

Being early they just continued their conversations about the new professor until the door opened and Dumbledore strode in leaving the door open behind him. Everyone turned back towards the door waiting for someone else to come through it but after a second or two it dawned on Harry and she turned back in time to see Dumbledore smiling. He pulled his wand out and flicked it towards the door making it slam closed and the class jump. They all turned to look at him and one by one all realised what was going on. Ron even let out a quiet "Bloody Hell!" which Dumbledore seemed not to hear.

But it was obvious now; their new teacher was Dumbledore himself.

"Good morning, everyone," Dumbledore started, "As you have no doubt worked out, I will be your Defence Against the Dark Arts professor for the remainder of the year." nobody made a sound but it was clear this was good news to the students "Your past two professors in this subject have stuck mainly to the 'Creatures' side of Defence, however I am sure that you are aware that other witches and wizards can also do you harm and that is what I will be teaching you to start with."

He paused to take a breath but before he could begin speaking again Hermione had put her hand up.

"Miss Granger?" he said amusement thick in his voice.

Hermione blushed but wouldn't be deterred "Are we behind if we have only been learning about creatures" she said.

"No." said Dumbledore "It is generally up to the Professor to decide what order to teach the subject in and so long as you know it all by your fifth year there is no problem. I will continue teaching you about creatures later in the year but I feel that by focusing solely on creatures then solely on dark practitioners you often forget parts of the creatures syllabus when it comes to take your OWLs. Not everyone has your memory nor your impeccable note taking, Miss Granger." He smiled towards the blushing girl.

"Now I am going to teach you two spells today, they are two of the easiest spells you will have to know in two and a half years time but both are very useful and are still used by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement today. They are the Disarming jinx 'Expelliarmus' and the shield spell 'Protego' I want you to pair up and we will begin"

It was one of the best lessons Harry had ever had. They did no written work and the desks stayed where they where, they just cast the spells at each other in turn, one trying to disarm and the other trying to shield themselves. But in it Dumbledore showed just how good he was at teaching, he just walked round correcting each student and before the class finished everybody could disarm somebody if they weren't being shielded and everybody could perform at least a weak shield with some shields looking almost solid.

"Well done everyone," said Dumbledore at the end of the lesson, "You all have done excellently. Next lesson I will teach you two more spells but during the practice time you will be able to cast the two I have taught you today as well as the new spells so you might want to practice what you have learned today as it will probably help you on Thursday. For this time next week I want a five inch essay on using the shield charm and dodging when faced with oncoming spells. Which is better? Why do you think that? And give scenarios where this is not the case. Please note that there is no right or wrong answer for this essay, you will be marked solely on your understanding of the subject." He waved his hand towards the door and walked towards his desk everybody took this as a cue to leave and filed out of the room.

"I will catch you up, alright?" said Harry to the others, they nodded in response.

She waited before everybody had left before approaching the desk and only when she did so did Dumbledore set down the quill he was writing with and look up at her expectantly. It was strange the way he did that, always let her talk first, always patiently waiting for her to direct the conversation. Harry knew of nobody else that did that with anyone, let alone twelve year old girls.

"Sir," it was always best to get the tone of respect in first when talking to Dumbledore, "I have a few questions if you don't mind."

"Of course, Harriet," he said ignoring Harry's cringe, "I don't have a lesson now, but if I am not mistaken," he said as if there was a chance of that, "You have History of Magic. Perhaps we should talk another time?"

"No that's alright, sir," Harry said as if Dumbledore had been suggesting it just to be nice, "Binns probably won't even notice I'm not there."

"_Professor _Binns, Harriet," Dumbledore reminded her.

"I doubt it, sir," said Harry, "He hasn't taught anyone but Hermione a thing since we came here; she is the only one who can stay awake in History."

Dumbledore sighed "I have seen many generations of Potters come through this castle but not even your father and his friends refused to go to a lesson in their second year." he paused and a frown crept over his face, "They did however stop going to history completely at the start of their fifth and every time we tried to punish them they claimed Cuthbert had been mistaken and they had in fact attended the lessons which as they correctly claimed was on goblin rebellions. The _one time_ I convinced Cuthbert to teach something other than goblin rebellions they turned up to the lesson... and the worst part is I still don't know how they knew they needed to be there."

A mixture of feelings flooded Harry, pride for her father getting one over on Dumbledore, an odd giddiness from learning something new about him and of course the crippling sadness that she felt whenever she thought about her parents.

Again Dumbledore waited calmly as Harry re-organised her thoughts and directed them to a less dangerous topic. "You viewed my memories." It wasn't a question, he had the first one from Halloween and Dobby's visit last night coincided with Colin's attack, he would have watched that straight away. "The voice?"

"I would have thought you would have worked that out by now, Harriet."

Actually she had all but confirmed that it was a product of her insanity and expected him to tell her that but if he thought it was real, yet he didn't hear it at first...

"Parseltounge? It was a snake?" Harry didn't know why she was so surprised what else would Slytherin have for a pet.

"Yes, and as a little extra homework for you, Harriet, is to figure out what snake the legendary 'Slytherin's Monster' is." said Dumbledore.

"Dobby?" Harry asked.

"Ah, yes, it is rather difficult to be discreet when enquiring about somebody's house elf and therefore I have made very little progress." He said tiredly, "The last thing we want is for his master to realise his elf has betrayed him."

"And what about Gilderoy, Madame Pomfrey didn't know what happened to him."

Dumbledore opened his mouth, probably to remind Harry to call him Professor but he stopped, smiled shaking his head and then started again "I sent him to America, there is less chance of him randomly coming into contact with magic there than in England." he said, moving a few papers around his desk "All he would have to do here is go shopping in London. Can you imagine what would happen if he was taken to a muggle hospital?"

"It's a shame you couldn't find out how the transfiguration worked" said Harry, "It would have been interesting to know."

"I am sure somebody will figure it out, sooner or later." He said dismissively. "But now you should get to your lesson." He held out the piece of parchment he had been writing on before Harry approached the desk and she saw it was a letter to Binns apologising for keeping Harry behind.

He had known all along she wasn't going to leave and come back later on.

"Thank you, sir."

"My pleasure, Harriet."

* * *

In the second week of December Professor McGonagall came round, just like last year, and collected all of the names of the students who would be staying in the school over Christmas. Harry signed her list, Dumbledore could probably pick her up from anywhere to take her to Godric's Hollow but Harry probably would have stayed in the castle even if she _did_ have a place to go back to.

Ron, Hermione and Neville had also put their names down as they had heard that Malfoy and his two followers, Crabbe and Goyle, were also staying and this seemed odd to them. The holidays would be the perfect time to use the Polyjuice potion to see what they could find out from him, there was just one problem with that, the potion wasn't finished.

They had been brewing it in Myrtle's bathroom on the second floor safe in the knowledge that nobody in their right minds would ever go in there, not to go the loo at any rate especially when Myrtle could be in any one of the toilets.

Harry shuddered; she really needed to stop thinking about those kinds of things.

The potion still needed boomslang skin and a bicorn horn, and the only place to get them was from Snape's private stores. Harry had hoped that this obstacle would stop the three of her friends but found out the following Thursday that they weren't going to let that be an issue.

It was quite obvious when they stole the ingredients as Neville seemed to make more mistakes that lesson than he ever had, he also kept nervously glancing at Snape... that and he threw a firework into Goyle's potion about fifteen minutes before the end of the class.

Harry had to admit it was a good distraction as not even she saw Hermione leave the classroom and she was looking for it. Harry did see Hermione come back in however, the front of her robes bulging of course. Snape made some very thinly veiled threats on whoever threw the firework, after he shrank the body parts of those hit by the swelling solution, so it was a rather relived set of Gryffindors that somehow left the class with the same number of house points they went in with.

But the thing that would stay with Harry forever was the sight of Malfoy running towards Snape with puffed up lips, Harry honestly couldn't think of a worse image.

After being told by Dumbledore that the voice she had heard was a snake Harry had searched through book after book on snakes, usually in the Hufflepuff common room as Hannah and Ches didn't try and drag her into conversations attempting to figure out who Malfoy was going to attack next, but she still hadn't worked out what snake Slytherin's Monster was.

There was the asfrada an exceptionally rare snake that could petrify people with its venom, it didn't eat meat which fit as Mrs Norris and Colin were both left and it was small enough to sneak around a castle undetected. Then there was a dulaseth, a double headed snake that was, again, easily able to petrify people with the poison in its left head, its right having the antidote for some reason. It also could sneak around the castle and it only fed on small rodents which were probably rather plentiful in a castle the size of Hogwarts.

Of course the main problem was that neither the asfrada nor the dulaseth could live the one thousand year gap between the time of the founders and the present, in fact the only species of snake that could was the basilisk, the king of serpents itself. However it couldn't be the basilisk either; a one thousand year old basilisk would be huge somebody would have seen it sneaking around, there was nowhere near enough food in the castle to feed it and then was the fact that the basilisk didn't petrify people – it killed them.

Via its highly poisonous fangs, its literally deathly gaze or its ability to crush small castles by encircling them and squeezing, the basilisk killed you. In the book _Why Dragons are Dangerous,_ William Eld recommended different actions when confronted by the different animals he described. His recommendation for the basilisk was 'Be a parselmouth' the only other animal that he described as being more dangerous than a basilisk was a nundu, his recommendation for those was 'Leave the country'.

Suffice to say that if it was a basilisk Colin wouldn't have been petrified – he would have been killed.

Harry had looked everywhere and even asked some of the older students in case they had come across a rare species of snake in their research for Care of Magical Creatures, None had. She had told a few of the Hufflepuffs that she was a Parselmouth, in fact the entire house knew not long after she had started asking around for suggestions as she constantly had to explain why she knew it was a snake.

What was rather odd however was that none of the Hufflepuffs seemed to mind, in fact Cedric Diggory, a fourth year, expressed his desire to become a Magizoologist and asked her if she would mind talking to a few snakes for him when he graduated – he wanted to do his Mastery paper on a Runespoor.

Seemingly nobody outside Hufflepuff knew she was a parselmouth either, except Hermione, Ron and Neville of course, apparently the 'Puffs were treating it as a house secret for which Harry was quite thankful.

So Harry had no idea what snake the monster was... right up until the last day of classes.

The weather had been slowly getting worse but sometime between Thursday night – a week after Hermione stole the potion ingredients from Snape – and Friday morning the grounds changed from cold, hard soil to cold, soft snow. The snow was so thick, in fact, that the last second year Gryffindor-Hufflepuff Herbology lesson was cancelled owing to Professor Sprout making a fuss about protecting the mandrakes that would eventually wake Colin an Mrs Norris up. But Harry wasn't going to let that stop her seeing Hannah and Ches for what might have been the last time before the Christmas holidays.

She let herself in through the portrait located the two of them sat with the other two second year girls, Sally-Anne Perks and Megan Jones.

"Hey," she said dropping into the seat beside Ches.

"Hi Harry," said Ches her eyes flicking out around the group before settling on Harry, almost as if she didn't know where her voice was coming from. "Shame about Herbology being cancelled isn't it?" she asked with a grin.

"No." Harry said, "It's really not."

"Do you really hate spending time with us Hufflepuffs?" Ches asked, pouting.

"No!" Harry said "You're the only thing that makes the lesson bearable. It would be torture without you lot."

Hannah mumbled something to the other two and she and Megan laughed but Sally-Anne, however, blushed and hid her face in her hands.

"Oi!" Ches said "What was that?"

"Nothing," Megan and Hannah chimed together.

Ches threw a pillow at Hannah.

Harry was glad they were back to normal; the two of them were a great form of entertainment.

"Hey, Megan," a tall dark haired boy had walked up to them, unknowingly interrupting the inevitable tickle fight between Hannah and Ches, which Ches would lose, she always did. "Here is you book back, thanks it is always nice to take a break from schoolwork and the books in the magical world are just nowhere near as good" the book _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ had defiantly seen better days but after getting it back Megan treated it like a prized possession.

"Thanks, David." said Megan.

Ah, now Harry realised who he was, the only fourth year Hufflepuff to have _not_ taken Care of Magical Creatures. Harry remembered all of his friends telling her there was something mentally wrong with him.

"Thanks, David." said Hannah and Ches together in a far too girly voice.

"I did not say it like that!" Megan exclaimed quietly, clearly not wanting to draw the attention of the boy leaving the portrait hole.

"Sure," Hannah said nodding.

"It's not as if you have a crush on him or anything." said Ches, smirking.

Megan's face flushed as her eyes flicked to Harry.

"Oh, come off it," Hannah said "It's not as if _Harry_ would say anything."

"That's not the point!" Megan said to Hannah.

Ches looked a little guilty but remained silent until Hannah glared at her.

"Sorry Megan." She said.

"It's alright, just don't do it again – you wouldn't like it would you?" Megan said.

Ches gave out an odd squeak and her eyes widened slightly "Err... no , no I wouldn't"

Harry frowned, what was she so worried about? Before she could ask Hannah changed the subject seemingly to put the issue behind them but Harry made a mental note to ask about it later.

They weren't sat talking for much longer as the portrait hole opened and the entire Hufflepuff house swarmed in.

"What on earth? What is going on here?" the voice of Paul Davisson, the Hufflepuff head boy, could be heard from the other side of the common room where he had been studying the minute before.

"There has been another attack" Harry didn't see who said it but the voice stilled everyone in the room, most sat down on chairs, a few remained stood up, leaning against a nearby wall or chair and a few sat on the floor. Harry suddenly felt like an outsider.

"Who was it?" Paul asked, now stood in the middle of the room like he was the spokesperson for the people gathered around him.

"Palmer and the Gryffindor ghost." Ernie Macmillan's distinctive voice said from somewhere behind Harry's chair.

"David Palmer?" called Cedric standing up.

"Yeah..." said a sixth year Harry didn't know.

Cedric sat back down and stared blankly at his knees, a quick glance at Megan's pale face and wide eyes confirmed that it was the same David that had just been in the common room giving Megan back her book.

There was a brief pause before Ernie spoke again.

"It's got to be Potter!" Ches tensed, anger flicked across her face and looked like she was about to attack the irritating boy but even though Harry felt anger bubbling up within her as well she settled for sinking further into her armchair.

"Our class was cancelled and we have it with the Gryffindors, that means that Potter was free this entire lesson." Ernie continued, "And I heard Longbottom and Weasley tell McGonagall that they hadn't seen her since breakfast."

"That is because she has been here since breakfast!" The response didn't come from Ches as Harry had expected but from Hannah, "And seeing as she was here well before David even left the dorm it would be quite hard for her to attack him from here with the four of us watching her! Unless of course you believe she has a way of being in two places at the same time?"

Hannah glanced at Harry and, reluctantly, Harry stood up with the entire house looking at her.

Paul seemed to take pity on her as he changed the subject quickly, then again he could just have been trying to avoid an argument. "What do you mean the Gryffindor ghost has been attacked?"

"He went all pearly and wasn't moving, McGonagall had to get another student to fan him down to the hospital wing."

Nobody responded to that but it was clear everyone was wondering just what could affect a ghost like that. And then it all clicked in Harry's head.

"How where they found?" she said to the sixth year that seemed so knowledgeable.

"Peeves found them." The boy responded.

"No, that's not what I mean. David – was he facing Nick with Nick facing away from David?" Harry specified.

"Er... yeah. How did you know that?"

"Because I have just realised that Slytherin's monster is a Basilisk."

"No, Harry," Cedric said wearily, from his chair, "We went through this – Basilisks kill you. Their sight is actually called the deathly gaze if you look at it you die, it doesn't petrify you."

"If you look at it directly – which nobody has." Harry countered, "David must have seen it through Nearly Headless Nick, Nick got the full blast but he can't die again. Colin saw it through his camera, the camera's insides burnt up but he just got petrified and the first thing Dumbledore pointed out when we got to Mrs Norris was the fact that there was water on the floor."

"She just saw a reflection." Cedric said.

Harry nodded "I am going to tell Dumbledore."

"I'll come with you." He said standing up.

"So will I." Paul said, "So I can walk you back Cedric."

Harry and Cedric nodded and followed him out of the common room, Harry pulling out her mirror as she went.

* * *

**Danni xxx**


End file.
